If you own, manage, or are otherwise responsible for a building here in Australia, you are required to keep up with fire safety measures as mandated by law. That includes measures such as monthly visual inspections to annual fire audits. The key document for many is the Annual Fire Safety statement.
Local councils as well as the NSW Fire and Rescue both have oversight over fire preparedness in their jurisdiction. After every fire safety audit and inspection, you will need to notify these authorities as part of your compliance requirements. A fire safety certificate and annual fire safety statement are the two ways how you show that your building complies with fire safety regulations.
What is a Fire Safety Audit?
A fire audit is an official inspection on each essential fire safety measure in a building done by an accredited fire safety practitioner every year. The audit is meant to certify that every piece of firefighting equipment in the building is in good working condition.
Working condition, in this case, means “to a standard no less than that to which the product was originally designed or is designed to be used.” The inspection is regulated by official standards such as the AS 4655-2005 standards.
As an owner, agent, or manager, you are required to choose an accredited fire safety practitioner listed on this official database as proof of their official credentials. The practitioner, who is also called a fire auditor, will perform the fire safety audit on behalf of the owners and agents while following official standards such as 4655-2005:Fire Safety Audits.
If the building passes the audit, you will be issued with a fire safety certificate valid for one year or until the next audit. The certificate confirms that all essential fire safety equipment indicated was serviced accordingly and thus passed inspection.
You will be required to file this certificate with the local councils and commissioner of Fire and Rescue and display it in the building together with a fire safety statement.
What is an Annual Fire Safety Statement?
The fire safety audit reveals any non-compliant fire safety measures in the building that you must resolve. Once that is done and the building is fully compliant, the building owner or someone acting in that capacity provides a written statement to show that the audit was completed successfully as required and all issues resolved.
The statement is issued within three months after the audit was done and within a year of the last statement having been issued. This statement is then to be submitted electronically to the local council and to the Commissioner of Fire and Rescue in the region together with a copy of the building’s current fire safety schedule.
A printed copy of the annual fire safety statement and fire safety schedule must also be on display prominently in the building at the entrance in full public view. The government provides standard templates for this statement that you can download here.
When Do You Need a Fire Safety Audit Statement?
Every time a fire audit is done, you will need to complete the annual fire safety statement and file accordingly. When the annual audit is done, you file an annual fire safety audit statement. If you do it again within a period of less than 12 months after the last one, you will file a supplementary fire audit statement.
The supplementary statement can be done when a critical measure is put into action (such as during a fire) or when the fire safety schedule requires it.
Adair Fire Audits and Certification in Sydney
Adair Fire Audits is a specialist organisation that does fire audits and building inspections in Sydney and the greater NSW. We work with building managers to ensure 100% compliance with fire regulations and issue Fire Protection Certification and even liaise with the Council on your behalf. If you are looking for a fire audit service that keeps integrity first, contact us about our fire safety services. We are independent and do not conduct upgrades or maintenance so any Annual Fire Safety Statement we issue is not a pathway for more business.