Does My Self-Storage Facility Need a Fire Risk Assessment?
Self-storage is a deceptively challenging setting for fire safety, and a fire risk assessment is very much required. The defining difficulty is that the operator rarely knows exactly what is stored behind each unit door, which makes the usual task of identifying fuel and ignition sources unusually hard, and self-storage fires have featured among the more stubborn and destructive commercial blazes of recent years, as the footage below shows.
A fire at a self-storage facility, showing how difficult these incidents can be to contain.
The legal position
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, a fire risk assessment is a legal requirement for any premises that is not a single private dwelling, and a self-storage facility is firmly within scope. Since 1 October 2023, when Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 amended the Order, the findings must be recorded in writing regardless of the number of people employed, which is significant in a sector that often runs with minimal staff on site.
The key pointEvery self-storage facility needs a recorded fire risk assessment, and because the operator cannot see inside individual units, strong compartmentation, early detection and clear customer rules carry much of the weight.
Who is the responsible person?
The duty falls on the responsible person, which for self-storage is usually the operator or owner of the facility. Because customers come and go with their own access, and may be on site outside staffed hours, the responsible person has to think carefully about how people would be warned and would leave in an emergency, and how the fire service would gain entry. The assessment must be carried out by a competent person.
The particular risks in self-storage
The features that make self-storage convenient are the same ones that complicate fire safety:
- Unknown contents, since despite prohibited-item rules, customers can store flammable liquids, aerosols, lithium batteries and other goods that the operator cannot inspect, so the fuel inside any given unit is effectively unknown.
- A maze of small compartments, where the fire-resisting construction between units is what stands between a single fire and a building-wide loss, making the integrity of those partitions critical.
- Difficult detection, because a fire developing inside a closed unit can be well established before it is noticed, which places great importance on early automatic detection and, where fitted, suppression.
- Access and security measures, such as shutters, gates and PIN-controlled entry, which can hinder both customer escape and fire service access if they are not properly planned.
- Repetitive, identical-looking corridors, where clear signage, emergency lighting and wayfinding help customers find their way out under stress.
- Limited staffing, which means the building relies heavily on its automatic systems rather than on people spotting a problem early.
A good assessment turns these into practical controls, covering the detection and alarm system, the standard of compartmentation and fire doors, the customer agreement and prohibited-items rules, the training of any staff, and a premises plan that helps the fire service respond effectively.
How we can help
We carry out fire risk assessments for self-storage and similar industrial and storage premises across the North West, North Wales and the West Midlands, including facilities in Chester, Wrexham and Liverpool.
Need a fire risk assessment for your facility?
We carry out clear, practical fire risk assessments for self-storage and storage premises across the North West, North Wales and the West Midlands. To discuss your premises, please get in touch.
Get in touch Fire risk assessmentThis article is provided for general information and does not constitute legal advice or a fire risk assessment. It is based on the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 as amended by Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022. Specific advice should be sought for your own premises.