External Fire Protection Officer

A fire protection officer is always recommended, but not every company needs to have one. As a rule of thumb: for facilities and workplaces with a particularly high fire risk and a high number of potentially endangered persons, it is compulsory to have a fire protection officer. Information is provided on building regulations, state building regulations, fire protection concepts, risk assessments and building permits. Insurance companies also often require you to have a fire protection officer. On top of this, occupational health and safety guidelines must also be observed.

It’s mostly the following types of workplaces that require specialists:

• Industrial buildings with a floor area of more than 5,000 m²
• Sales outlets with a floor area of more than 2,000 m²
• Office and administration buildings with more than 3,000 m² of floor space
• Special buildings (e.g. high-rise buildings, clinics, hotels, retirement homes)

Some companies need more than just one fire protection officer. You can check how many you need in the stipulations of the state building regulation, the fire protection concept, the risk assessment or the property insurer

A fire protection officer completes more comprehensive training according to the vfdb guidelines and takes on more tasks in the field of preventive fire protection. Only they can provide comprehensive advice to the person responsible for fire protection – i.e. employer or facility manager. Fire safety assistants, on the other hand, are supposed to initiate initial measures in the event of a fire, such as instructing the fire brigade. They also take part in a training course, but mainly possess basic knowledge. Often the fire protection officer trains the operational assistants. These fire protection training courses are also part of CWS’ service.

You have to weigh up what makes the most sense for your company. We’d be very happy to support you in this. Not every company has the capacity to employ a fire protection officer in its own staff. Employees can be responsible for occupational health and safety and fire protection at the same time, but cannot act as fire protection officers. Assigning this responsibility-intensive task to your own staff adds a lot of work for them. External experts can relieve such a burden on the workforce.

By the way, if guidelines require several experts, a combination of internal and external officers can also work. Our experts coordinate with all parties involved within your company and work hand in hand with them

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. The larger the task area of an officer, the more frequently they are called into action. However, their work also depends on the building itself as well as building law guidelines. In principle, the officer should visit the place of work at least once per month in order to check fire protection measures.

Our customers benefit from customised fire protection solutions and comprehensive services. Our complete service keeps the amount of effort as low as possible for you. In addition to an external fire protection officer, we can also provide you with an expert.  You also need not worry about any defects that are discovered. We’d be more than happy to solve the problem for you.