It is now a legal requirement for all play areas to have carried out a fire risk assessment. The problem is knowing whether the risk assessment you have carried out is going to be acceptable for your local fire officer. There is the option to bring in local experts to do it, but in reality how much experience will they have to know what happens in our type of business in emergencies.

Well help is close to hand, for research has been carried out in the last few years which will provide that expertise to enable you to have a comprehensive and objective fire risk assessment.

The work, which was sponsored by the government, was carried out by Chiltern International Fire in High Wycombe and involved building a full size play facility. Numerous fire simulations were carried out, including test fires and evacuations by the local fire brigade.

A mountain of information was collected and from this a comprehensive fire risk assessment was developed and the basic contents of the report can be found on www.chilternfire.co.uk. The full report and fire risk assessment framework can be purchased from them for £75.00, but we have negotiated a discount deal for just £20.00 plus VAT, so if you would like a copy then please contact me on 01494 678699 or email me at mikeboyle@activityworld.co.uk.