With wedding season approaching, now is an opportune time for venue owners to consider wedding safety precautions – particularly when it comes to fires. Rustic wedding venues such as listed sites with thatched roofs remain popular, as well as barns and historic buildings.
It’s possible to protect people and property by assessing wedding safety thoroughly. Here, we explain who is responsible for this, the fire risks to consider, and the correct firefighting equipment a wedding venue should have installed.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires responsible person(s) to adhere to fire safety regulations by law. For wedding property owners, this includes (but is not limited to) event venues such as halls and hotels, pubs, clubs, restaurants, hostels, bed and breakfasts, guest houses, and self-catering properties.
Government data shows that more than 6,400 fires broke out in hospitality venues across the UK in the four years leading up to the pandemic, when businesses were operating as usual. The main causes of the fires include flammable liquids, cooking oils/fats, careless smoking, and electrical equipment.
To avoid these risks and comply with the guidelines, it’s imperative that hospitality businesses and premises follow the main rules under the 2005 order. These include:
Under the order, the ‘responsible person’ for fire safety in a wedding venue can be anyone with control of premises, or specific areas/systems within a business. One or more people may be responsible, depending on the hospitality business or non-domestic premises.
For example, the responsible person of a luxury wedding hall could be the owner or employer. In a large hotel with an event space, it may be that there are multiple responsible persons – the landlord/owner may oversee one area while a facilities manager oversees the event space. A responsible person may also be building managers, managing agents, risk assessors, or other occupiers of a premises.
If there’s more than one responsible person, it’s important to fully communicate how these coordinated roles are managed. This could include writing joint procedures or holding regular meetings between responsible persons.
Those responsible for wedding safety precautions can take a number of steps to prevent the outbreak of fires. We’ve outlined steps to meet the order above – here, we explain how a responsible person can adhere to them.
The main fire hazards for wedding venues are sources of ignition, such as cooking equipment in kitchens, electronic equipment, (extractor fans, washing machines/dryers for example) and discarded cigarettes. Risks could also range from naked flames in a restaurant kitchen to log fires in a country pub. Regular cleaning, maintenance and inspections are essential in saving lives and preventing extreme damage from occurring.
A responsible person should also inspect cooking oils and fats. These types of fuel can explode in reaction with liquids, creating a ‘Class F’ fire that requires very specific solutions to put out. Proper fire equipment is crucial for these risk areas – but with the likes of the CommanderEDGE MultiCHEM fire extinguisher and proper staff training, these potentially dangerous situations can be contained or stopped before they take hold.
Different hazards may be specific to different ceremonies. For example, if a couple wishes to release paper lanterns on their big day, this should be discouraged. While typically fire retardant, paper lanterns pose a significant fire risk, particularly to thatched roofs or camping sites, and are also a hazard to livestock and agriculture . If a venue is situated on a farm, barn fire safety should also include preventing paper lantern releases, as well as ensuring the barn is a smoke-free zone, with no flammable liquids stored nearby.
Wedding venues are often busy places. Staff can be occupied with various tasks, sometimes miscommunicating, while the last thing wedding guests will be thinking about is fire safety. If a venue is a hotel or somewhere guests can stay the night, it’s even more crucial to identify which guests may need more support and time escaping in the event of a fire. These include elderly and disabled people, those with children or babies, as well as people working alone or in isolated spaces, or those working close to fire dangers.
From replacing highly flammable materials with less flammable ones to safe-smoking policies, there are plenty of practical steps that can reduce or remove fire risks in wedding venues. Once these have been evaluated, further preventative measures need to be made to provide an adequate level of fire safety. These include:
Detection systems are crucial in wedding venues – these should be maintained and tested to ensure everyone from guests to staff have the best chance of dealing with the fire or evacuating the building. Alarms must be loud enough and batteries changed annually, while signage must always warn how and where staff and guests can raise the alarm.
Legally-compliant fire extinguishers, emergency lighting, and fire safety signs should all be clearly marked and maintained in a premises. The latter is crucial for guiding evacuating guests and staff – get familiar with fire safety signs, symbols and their meanings. For front-of-house fire extinguishers, or those located in luxurious event spaces, our Contempo range delivers powerful wedding safety without compromising on the aesthetics of a couple’s special day. Available in Polished Gold, Stainless Steel, and Antique Copper, these sturdy but stunning units are a must-have for high-end wedding settings.
The importance of a fire escape plan should never be underestimated – making sure there are no obstructions to fire exits and escape routes can save lives. Also check for damaged fire doors and broken smoke seals, which can lead to guests or staff becoming trapped or halted during an escape. Proper emergency routes, clutter-free doorways, and fire safety signs are vital for guiding people out of a wedding venue safely. To match our Contempo fire extinguishers, selected signage is also available in matching Contempo finishes for a harmonious aesthetic.
Fire protection for thatch roof properties is vital, since thatch fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish. The most common causes of thatched roof fire outbreaks are chimney-related, often sparked by ejected embers. To prevent these risks, property owners should sweep chimneys regularly, burn seasoned or kiln-dried wood, monitor chimney/flue temperature, replace spark arrestors with bird guards, and take care when lighting fires (firelighters are recommended over paper or card).
Early fire risk assessments and precautions can save lives and serious damage, but they’re also extremely important to ensure everyone within the venue is aware of the wedding safety procedures. Being able to react in such a way can only come from an adequate and coordinated fire safety plan, tailored to your premises. From staff to stewards to volunteers, anyone involved should receive training on fire risks, as well as the plan in the event of a fire.
Making sure fire risk assessments are up-to-date in a wedding venue is crucial. Every time there’s a significant change to the level of risk in the premises – for example, a new night shift joins, or new cooking oils are introduced to the kitchen – there should be a review to service equipment and train staff.
Breaking fire safety regulations in wedding venues puts lives at serious risk – and the penalties can include fines and imprisonment. Furthermore, a responsible person will be prosecuted as an individual, not as a company.
In 2018, the owner of a Grade I-listed wedding venue was fined and imprisoned for serious fire safety breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in his 14th-century partly-timber hall. These included failure to review fire risk assessments, inadequate fire detectors, alarms, firefighting equipment, escape routes, signage for emergency routes and exits, and a lack of fire safety training for staff at the venue.
At CheckFire, we’ve supported the fire trade for almost half a century – and that includes helping venue owners adhere to wedding safety regulations. From barn fire safety to festival fire prevention, find more support and information for hospitality and events at our resource centre.
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