Fire Risk Assessment for Warehouses in Nottingham

Distribution units, storage facilities, light industrial and manufacturing premises. Racking, compartmentation, process risk and DSEAR considered together, not as a checklist.

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✓ High-bay and racked storage✓ Lithium battery storage✓ Insurer-ready reports✓ Out-of-hours visits available

Why Warehouses Are Assessed Differently

A warehouse has few occupants and a great deal of combustible material. That inverts the usual priorities. In an office the assessment is dominated by getting people out; in a warehouse, life safety is usually straightforward and the hard questions are about fire growth, spread and whether the building’s protection measures can cope with what is actually stored in it.

As the employer or occupier you are the responsible person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. If you employ five or more people the significant findings must be recorded in writing. The relevant Government guidance is Fire Safety Risk Assessment: Factories and Warehouses.

Your insurer is often the stricter partyCommercial property insurers frequently impose conditions beyond the legal minimum – maximum storage heights, clear zones around sprinkler heads, restrictions on certain goods, hot works permits. A warehouse can be legally compliant and still in breach of policy conditions. We assess against the Fire Safety Order and flag anything likely to concern an insurer, because a declined claim costs more than an enforcement notice.

What We Assess

✓Racking layout, storage heights and clearance beneath sprinkler heads
✓Commodity classification – what is actually stored, not what the unit was designed for
✓Compartmentation between warehouse, offices, mezzanine and plant areas
✓Means of escape and travel distances across an open floor plate
✓Detection and alarm – coverage at height, audibility over machinery
✓Sprinkler or suppression provision and maintenance records
✓Charging areas for forklifts and MHE, including lithium-ion battery charging
✓Hot works controls and permit systems
✓Flammable liquids and gases, and where DSEAR obligations are triggered
✓Dust risk in any process generating combustible dust
✓External storage, waste and arson risk around the perimeter
✓Fire service access, hydrants and water supplies

The Finding That Comes Up Most

Racking grows. A unit is fitted out with a sensible storage plan, then volumes increase, an extra beam level gets added, and stock creeps upward until it sits under the sprinklers rather than below them.

Lithium-Ion Storage Is the Risk That Changed

Any operation handling e-bikes, e-scooters, power tools, mobility scooters or battery stock now carries a risk profile that older assessments simply do not address. Lithium-ion cells in thermal runaway burn extremely hot, are difficult to extinguish with water alone, and can reignite hours later. Charging areas for warehouse MHE carry the same issue at smaller scale.

If your assessment predates this becoming a mainstream concern and you store or charge lithium cells, that alone is reason to have it reviewed. We look at charging location, separation from stock, detection over charging bays, and whether damaged cells have a quarantine arrangement.

Nottingham’s Industrial Estates

We cover units across the Nottingham industrial belt, including Castle Marina, Lenton Industrial Estate, Blenheim and the Bulwell estates, Colwick Industrial Estate, Queens Drive, and the newer distribution parks out toward the M1 at junctions 25 and 26.

Older brick-built units

Inner-city estates often have units converted from earlier industrial use. Compartmentation between adjoining units is the recurring question, particularly where a party wall has been breached for services or where a single occupier has knocked two units together.

Modern steel portal frame

Standard for distribution units. Fire performance depends heavily on the roof and wall panel composition and on whether the cavity barriers are intact. Insulated panel cores matter and are worth confirming rather than assuming.

Mezzanine floors

Added after occupation and frequently the weakest point in an older assessment. A mezzanine changes travel distances, may need its own detection and escape route, and often needs building control sign-off that was never obtained.

Multi-occupancy estates

Where a landlord retains common areas, responsibility splits between landlord and tenants. We can assess a single demised unit or the whole estate, but it is worth being clear which you are buying.

Pricing

Premises	Starting price	Notes
Small unit – up to 500 m²	From £350	Single occupier
Medium unit – 500 to 2,000 m²	From £500	Written report included
Large unit – 2,000 to 5,000 m²	From £750	Racked storage assessed
Over 5,000 m² or high-bay	POA	Quote on request
With mezzanine or attached offices	Add on request	Assessed as separate areas
Multi-unit estate	Discounted	Landlord or managing agent

How to Spot a Bad Fire Risk Assessment

There is a pattern in this industry worth knowing about before you book anyone, including us. An assessor quotes noticeably below everyone else, spends a short time on site, and produces a report listing a long set of deficiencies. The following day an email arrives quoting for the remedial works. The assessment was never really the product.

Our position on thisWe do not sell fire doors, alarm systems, extinguishers, signage or any other remedial work. We have no financial interest in what the assessment finds. If your building is compliant, the report says so.

Warning signs worth taking seriously

!A quote given without asking about the size, layout or use of the building
!An inspection that takes twenty minutes for a large or multi-storey premises
!A report that arrives alongside, or just before, a quote for remedial works
!Findings that do not match the building, or generic wording that could describe anywhere
!Existing compliant equipment not recorded, making the premises look worse than it is
!No register number, no professional indemnity limit, no sample report offered

Six questions to ask any assessor

Ask these of us and of whoever else you are considering. A competent assessor answers all six without hesitation: their register number and tier under BS 8674:2025 and the IFSM register; their professional indemnity limit; whether you can see a sample report; whether they have assessed this building type before; whether they sell the works they recommend; and which type of assessment, Type 1 to Type 4, you are being quoted for.

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Tell us about your premises and a local assessor will get back to you with a fixed quote and available dates. No obligation.

Prefer to talk? Call 0115 647 8715 · lines are open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes if you employ five or more people, in which case the significant findings must be recorded in writing under the Fire Safety Order. Even below that threshold the assessment itself is still legally required, and in practice almost every warehouse operator needs a written record because insurers and landlords ask for it.

Substantially. Storage height, aisle width, commodity type and clearance beneath sprinkler heads all change how a fire would develop and whether suppression would work. Racking that has grown since the unit was fitted out is one of the most common findings, because stock creeps up into the zone the sprinklers need in order to reach the seat of a fire.

Possibly. DSEAR applies where dangerous substances are present – flammable liquids, certain gases, or combustible dusts. The fire risk assessment will identify whether DSEAR is engaged and what it covers, but a full DSEAR assessment with hazardous area classification is a separate piece of work. We will tell you clearly if you need one rather than quietly including or excluding it.

Separated from general stock, ideally in a dedicated area with detection, away from escape routes, with damaged or swollen cells quarantined rather than left on the rack. Charging bays for forklifts and other MHE need the same consideration. If your current assessment does not mention lithium-ion at all and you handle battery stock, it is out of date.

Yes. Warehouse assessments often work better outside peak operating hours, when racking is accessible and MHE traffic is lower. We can also work around shift patterns. Tell us your constraints when you enquire and we will schedule around them.