If a fire safety inspector or your insurer asks to see your fire log book, the entries in it tell a clear story: either fire safety is being managed actively and regularly, or it is not.

A fire log book should record:

- Weekly fire alarm test results, including the zone or call point tested, and any faults.
- Fire drills: date, number of people, time to evacuate, any issues noted.
- Any alarm activations: genuine, false, or test, and the cause if known.
- Maintenance and servicing visits for alarms, extinguishers, emergency lighting, and fire doors.
- Any fire safety training sessions, and who attended.

The format does not need to be complicated, a bound book or a simple template, but it needs to be filled in consistently. Gaps in the record, or a book that has not been updated for months, are as telling as the entries themselves.

Keeping that record, prompting the weekly test, and making sure servicing visits are logged, is part of what we include in a managed fire safety arrangement. If your current log book does not reflect what is actually happening on site, that is worth fixing before an inspection or incident makes it matter.

Two short fire-safety moments worth carving out before Christmas.

Before the trading peak:

- Decorations and lights kept clear of heat sources and not blocking signage or sensors.
- Stock build-up not stored in escape routes or against fire doors.
- Kitchen extraction cleaned and suppression in date.
- Staff and seasonal hires briefed on what to do if the alarm goes.

Before shutdown:

- Final lock-up walk includes heaters off, chargers unplugged, fridges and essential kit confirmed.
- Alarm monitoring contacts up to date with whoever is on call.
- Out-of-hours key holder list checked.
- Any decorations left up are well away from heaters and lighting.

Quiet five-minute jobs that often save a much louder January.

Arson accounts for a significant share of commercial building fires, and the majority of those fires start with whatever is easiest to ignite at the side or back of a building.

A quick look at what sits against your external walls:

- Cardboard and packaging waiting for the next collection, stacked directly against the wall.
- A skip or large bin that is left open and accessible overnight.
- Old furniture, pallets, or stock lined up by the service entrance.
- A delivery area that doubles as informal storage.

None of this takes a determined arsonist, just an opportunistic one with a lighter. The straightforward fix is clear separation: combustible waste away from the building envelope, bins and skips covered or locked overnight, and a collection schedule that stops material building up.

A fire risk assessment should flag this, but it is also the kind of thing that slips between maintenance cycles. Worth walking the outside of your building with that question in mind.

If you are a landlord, you are the responsible person under fire safety law for your rented property, which means the obligation to manage fire risk sits with you, not the tenant.

The basics that should be in place for most rented properties:

- Smoke alarms on every floor, heat detector in the kitchen, all interlinked.
- A carbon monoxide alarm where there is a solid fuel appliance.
- Fire doors in the right places, in working condition, with self-closers.
- Clear escape routes: no blocked corridors, no stored items in stairwells.
- Emergency lighting for any shared internal area where the layout means a tenant could be disoriented in a power cut.

For an HMO (a property rented to three or more people from different households) a formal written fire risk assessment is a legal requirement, not optional. That assessment should be carried out by a competent person and reviewed when anything significant changes.

If you are managing one or several properties and are not certain what is in place, a straightforward review is the starting point. Carrying out landlord and HMO fire risk assessments is something we do.

Cigarette waste is one of the more preventable causes of external building fires, and yet the setup of smoking areas at many commercial premises does not get much thought beyond putting a bin near the door.

A few things that go wrong in practice:

- A metal stub-out bin placed directly against a timber cladding panel, or next to a gas meter.
- A plastic bin used instead of a proper metal-hooded stub-out bin, because it was what was available.
- A smoking shelter that has become an informal storage area for cardboard and packaging.
- Bins that are emptied infrequently, so waste builds up before it is fully out.

The standard is not complicated: a suitable metal bin, at a safe distance from combustible materials and building openings, cleared regularly, in a position that does not encourage smoking near fire exits or deliveries. If your current setup has drifted from that, it is a quick thing to put right. Getting it properly reviewed is something we can do as part of a wider premises assessment.

Electrical faults are one of the most common causes of fire in commercial premises. In a typical office, workshop, or retail unit, the everyday risks include extension leads running under carpets, sockets loaded with four-way adapters, and appliances that have never had a formal check.

PAT testing (portable appliance testing) is not a legal requirement in itself, but it is a recognised way to demonstrate that electrical equipment is safe and that you have documented the check. It is also, in practice, the kind of evidence that matters after an incident.

A few things worth looking at now:

- Extension leads and multi-socket adapters: are they appropriate for the load being put through them?
- Any appliances brought in from outside (kettles, fans, portable heaters, phone chargers) that have never been checked?
- A record of when each appliance was last tested, and when it is due?

Electrical safety should be part of your fire risk assessment, not a separate afterthought. It is one of the areas we cover when we carry out an assessment. If your last one did not address it clearly, that is worth revisiting.

Bonfire Night brings two very different audiences worth a quick word for.

For households:

- Keep fireworks in a closed metal container until use.
- One person lighting, everyone else well back.
- Have a bucket of water nearby for spent fireworks.
- Keep pets indoors and check on neighbours who might find it stressful.

For venues running an organised event:

- Confirm your stewarding plan, exits, and crowd routes.
- Brief staff on what to do if the alarm goes inside while an event is on outside.
- Check extinguishers on the route between any pyrotechnic area and the building.
- Keep clear access for fire service vehicles, even when the car park is busy.

Organised displays remain the safer option for most people. Either way, a short walk round the day before catches almost everything.

Hot work, cutting, welding, grinding, and anything else that generates heat or sparks, is one of the most common causes of accidental fires in commercial and industrial premises. Most of those fires happen after the contractor has left, when smouldering materials go undetected.

A permit-to-work system is the practical fix. Before work starts, it confirms:

- The area has been assessed and flammable materials cleared or protected.
- A fire watch is in place during work and for at least an hour after.
- Extinguishers and detection are available and checked.
- Isolation of alarm zones is managed correctly (not just disabled and forgotten).

Without that structure, the responsibility often falls through the gap between the responsible person and the contractor. If hot work is a regular part of your site's activity, or if contractors come in seasonally, getting the procedure right is worth doing properly. It is something we can advise on.

As the nights draw in, candles, fairy lights, and seasonal displays start appearing at home and at work. A few calm reminders.

- Keep candles away from anything that can catch, and never leave them burning unattended.
- Battery tealights are a genuinely good swap in busy or public spaces.
- Do not run decorations or extra lighting off daisy-chained extension leads.
- Keep displays, stock, and decorations clear of exits, signage, and fire equipment.

None of this needs to be dramatic. It is mostly about where things are put, and remembering to switch them off.

E-bikes, e-scooters, and the lithium batteries inside them are a real fire risk when they are charged or stored badly. Fires from these batteries spread fast and produce toxic smoke. A few habits make a significant difference.

- Charge during the day when you can keep an eye on it. Unplug when it is done or when you go to sleep.
- Never charge in a hallway, stairwell, or anywhere that blocks an escape route if a fire starts.
- Store and charge at room temperature. Damp, cold, and extreme heat all shorten battery life and raise the risk.
- Buy replacement chargers from the original manufacturer or a verified supplier. Cheap aftermarket chargers are a common cause of fires.
- If a battery gets hot, swells, or smells unusual, stop using it and get advice before charging again.

This applies to staff at premises with delivery riders, hire bikes, or on-site transport too. A brief word with your team is worth it.

A fire door is not just a door with a certificate. It is a rated system: the door, the frame, the seals, the closer, and the ironmongery all working together. If any part is wrong, the rating is gone.

Three things worth checking on any fire door you pass:

- The gap around the top and sides should be no more than three millimetres. A coin fit through the gap is a bad sign.
- The intumescent strip (the soft strip in the door or frame) should be continuous, uncut, and not flattened or missing.
- The self-closer should bring the door fully shut from any angle, without being propped, wedged, or held back.

A fire door that fails to close or that has damaged seals can be worse than no plan at all: it gives building users confidence they should not have. Getting the right eyes on them, a proper inspection and certification, is the only way to know they are doing their job. That is something we can sort.

Extinguishers are the right answer for most small fires, in the right hands. But some risks move too fast, or sit somewhere nobody is standing, and there a suppression system earns its place.

Where suppression is worth considering:

- Commercial kitchens, over the cooking line, where hot oil can take hold quickly.
- Server rooms and comms cabinets, where water would do as much damage as the fire.
- Plant, machinery, and areas that run unattended.

A suppression system detects and acts in seconds, often before a person could, and is matched to the specific risk: wet chemical for kitchens, a clean agent for electronics, and so on. Designing the right system, installing it, and keeping it serviced is what we do. If you have an area where an extinguisher feels like not quite enough, that is worth a conversation.

A quick, calm reminder, the kind worth repeating now and then: what to actually do when the fire alarm sounds.

- Treat every alarm as real. Leave straight away.
- Do not stop to collect belongings or finish what you were doing.
- Use the nearest safe exit. Never the lift.
- Help anyone who needs it, and tell a fire warden if you think someone may still be inside.
- Go to the assembly point, and stay there until you are told it is clear.

Most evacuations that go wrong, go wrong in the first thirty seconds, when people hesitate or head the wrong way out of habit. A calm, automatic response is the whole point of practising it.

You can have every extinguisher serviced and every alarm tested and still come unstuck in a real incident if people freeze or hesitate. The kit is only half of it. A team that knows what to do is the rest.

Good fire training is not complicated. It covers:

- How to raise the alarm, and what the alarm actually means in your building.
- The evacuation routine: where to go, who checks what, where to gather.
- When it is, and is not, safe to use an extinguisher, and which one.
- The role of a fire warden, and who does it on each shift.

A short, practical session once a year keeps it fresh, and new starters should not wait twelve months for theirs. Delivering training that people actually remember, and that suits your premises, is what we do. Happy to set it up.

Fire safety signage is one of those things that is easy to overlook, until an inspection, or worse, an evacuation, when it suddenly matters a great deal.

A quick look around your premises:

- Can you see a fire exit sign from anywhere a person might be, pointing the right way?
- Are exit and directional signs consistent, not a mix of old and new styles?
- Are the signs that matter in a power cut the photoluminescent or illuminated type?
- Is fire equipment, like extinguishers and call points, clearly identified?
- Nothing faded, hidden behind a noticeboard, or pointing at a door that is now locked?

Spotting the gaps is straightforward. Getting the right signs, in the right places, to the right standard, is the part we handle. If your signage is a patchwork, or the layout has changed, we can put it right.

If you run a business or manage a building, you almost certainly need a fire risk assessment, and the part that gets missed is that it is not a one-off.

It is worth a fresh look:

- At least once a year, as a matter of routine.
- After any real change: a new layout, a refit, different use of a space, more people, new equipment or storage.
- After any near miss or incident.

Knowing when to review it is the easy part. The assessment itself needs to be carried out by someone competent, and acted on, because the findings are a to-do list, not a certificate to file away. Carrying out clear, practical fire risk assessments, and helping you close out what they find, is what we do. If yours is overdue, or the building has changed, we can help.

Autumn intake is a sensible moment for landlords, letting agents, and HMO operators to do a short fire-safety pass through each property.

A useful starter list:

- Smoke and heat alarms tested, batteries fresh, interlinked where required.
- Fire doors closing properly, with intact seals and no missing closers.
- Emergency lighting working on common stair and corridor routes.
- Escape routes clear of bikes, bin bags, and stored furniture.
- Tenant pack with a short "what to do if the alarm goes" page.

Most issues turn up in five minutes. Fixing them before tenants move in is much easier than fixing them in October.

Emergency lighting only earns its keep on the day the power goes off, which is exactly why it gets forgotten, and why it needs testing.

The routine is simpler than people expect:

- A short monthly test: briefly cut the power to the units and check each one lights up.
- A full annual test: run them for their rated duration (usually three hours) to confirm the batteries hold.
- Keep a record of each test.

The quick monthly check you can do yourself. The full annual test, and repairing or replacing any unit that fails or fades early, is the professional job, and the bit we handle, along with the certificate that shows it was done. If yours is due, or a unit has stopped working, we can sort it.

The post-summer restart is a good moment to catch anything that slipped while people were away.

Worth picking back up:

- Any servicing or maintenance due over the summer: alarms, extinguishers, emergency lighting.
- Alarm and test logs up to date, with any faults from the quiet weeks chased down.
- Fire warden and first-aider cover back to full after holidays and staff changes.
- Summer contractor work signed off, with nothing left blocking routes or wedging doors.

A short catch-up now saves a scramble when autumn gets busy.

Most commercial kitchen fires come down to two things: grease and hot oil. A bit of routine keeps the risk down.

Worth staying on top of:

- Extraction and ducting collect grease, and need cleaning on a schedule that suits how hard the kitchen works.
- Hot oil is never left unattended, and is given time to cool before cleaning.
- Filters cleaned regularly, and surfaces wiped down at the end of service.

Routine reduces the risk, but it does not put a fire out. For that you need the right equipment within reach: a fire blanket and a wet chemical extinguisher made for cooking oils, never water, and, in a busy kitchen, a suppression system over the cooking line. Making sure you have the correct kit, in the right places, serviced and ready, is what we do. Happy to take a look.

One of the most effective fire-safety improvements costs nothing at all: keep your escape routes clear.

It is easy for corridors and stairwells to fill up over time. Deliveries, spare furniture, stock, the box that was only meant to be there for an hour. In an evacuation, those are the things people trip over in poor visibility.

A quick walk round, today:

- Nothing stored in corridors, stairwells, or in front of fire exits.
- Every final exit door opens easily from the inside, without a key.
- Fire exit signs are visible, and not hidden behind anything.

If you can walk every escape route from desk to outside without moving a thing, you are in good shape.

Most workplaces should test their fire alarm once a week. It takes five minutes and it is the simplest way to know the system responds before you ever need it.

A simple weekly routine:

- Use a different call point each week, so over time you cover them all.
- Let people know it is a test first, then trigger it.
- Check the alarm is clearly audible everywhere, including noisy areas and quiet corners.
- Write down the date, the call point used, and that it worked, in your fire log book.

The weekly test is your own job, and it is worth doing well. What it cannot do is keep the whole system maintained: the panel, detectors, batteries and wiring need a regular service by a qualified engineer, usually twice a year. That part is ours. If a weekly test flags a fault, or your service is due, we can sort it.

A few quiet reminders for the BBQ season:

- Disposable BBQs stay hot long after the food is off. Cool them fully with water before they go in a bin.
- Keep any BBQ well clear of fences, sheds, parasols, and dry grass.
- If you are out in the countryside or near woodland, leave the disposable BBQ at home.
- Pub gardens and outdoor venues: brief staff on what to do if a customer brings their own.

Most outdoor cooking is fine. The avoidable incidents tend to come from heat, wind, and where the BBQ gets put down afterwards.

A quick monthly look at your fire extinguishers takes two minutes and catches the obvious problems. It is worth doing, but it does not replace the annual service, and the service is the part that actually keeps you compliant.

What to glance at each month:

- Pressure gauge needle in the green.
- Each extinguisher in place, clearly visible and unobstructed.
- No obvious damage, corrosion, or a missing pin or tamper seal.
- The service label still in date.

What a monthly look cannot tell you is whether the extinguisher will actually work when it matters. That takes a proper service by a qualified engineer once a year, and it is the bit we look after. If your service is due, or a check turns something up, we are happy to help.

Summer trading is one of the busier stretches of the year for hospitality. It is also when small fire-safety gaps tend to get noticed.

A short pre-season walk round is usually enough:

- Kitchen suppression in date and serviced.
- Extinguishers in place, sealed, and signed.
- Escape routes clear, even when the outside seating is busy.
- Final exits unlocked during trading hours.
- Staff briefed on what to do if the alarm goes, including any new starters.

None of this needs to be dramatic. A quiet half hour with the duty manager usually surfaces anything that needs sorting before a hot Saturday night.

Warmer weather changes how a care setting runs: windows open, fans plugged in, doors propped for airflow. A few things are worth a second look before any heatwave.

For care homes and supported living:

- Fire doors stay closed. If airflow is the issue, look at proper hold-open devices linked to the alarm, never wedges.
- Check window restrictors are working. They matter for both falls and safe escape.
- Make sure fans and portable cooling are not overloading sockets or trailing across escape routes.
- Revisit PEEPs (personal emergency evacuation plans) for any resident whose needs have changed.

Comfort and fire safety do not have to pull against each other. They just need a plan.

The Scottish Government continues its commitment to enhanced building safety through the Cladding Remediation Programme. A recent update highlights a £10 million allocation specifically for fire alarm upgrades in multi-owner buildings affected by cladding issues. This significant investment aims to further protect residents across Scotland by improving essential fire safety infrastructure. As a BAFE-registered and ISO 9001 certified consultancy, MacFire Ltd is dedicated to supporting these crucial safety improvements. We provide expert fire alarm supply, installation, and maintenance services, ensuring robust protection for your premises.

Considering fire alarm upgrades for your property? Contact MacFire Ltd for a free, no-obligation site survey on 0141 881 5455.

Source: Cladding Remediation Programme Next Phase Plan Action

If your building is in scope for cladding remediation, the verification side is starting to firm up.

On 25 March 2026, the Scottish Government published an outline approach to verifying building warrant applications for cladding remediation works. It sits on top of the 1 June 2022 amendment to the Building (Scotland) Regulations and applies to buildings 11 metres and above, with material classifications, insulation depths and masonry thicknesses all called out.

For owners and project teams, the practical move is to read the factsheet before applying. A warrant application that already lines up with the verification approach is going to move much faster than one that doesn't.

Source: Cladding remediation - building warrant applications: outline approach to verification

If you work on conversions of traditional Scottish buildings, the new interim guidance from the Scottish Government is worth a careful read.

Published on 20 March 2026, the Guide to Conversion of Traditional Buildings supports the Domestic and Non-Domestic Technical Handbooks that take effect on 6 April 2026. It covers the fire-safety side in detail - separation between occupancies, structural fire protection, cavity fire stopping, internal linings, external wall fire spread, escape provisions, and fire service access and water supply.

For owners and project teams, the practical takeaway is the same as always: get the fire strategy clarified at design stage, not at sign-off. The earlier the conversation, the cheaper and calmer the project.

Source: Guide to Conversion of Traditional Buildings

Fire guidance in Scotland is still evolving.

On 16 January 2026, the Scottish Government launched a call for evidence to review Section 2 (Fire) of the Technical Handbooks, following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry response. That matters because fire guidance is not something you file once and forget. It changes as evidence, building practice and lessons from real incidents develop.

For businesses, the practical takeaway is simple: if the building changes, the fire plan should be checked too.

Sources: Building regulations - Building standards · Future Changes to the Domestic and Non-Domestic Technical Handbooks

Scotland's building standards are moving again, and fire safety is right in the middle of it.

The Scottish Government says new technical handbooks come into use from 6 April 2026, with updates to Section 2 Fire, Section 3 Environment and Section 4 Safety. The same update also points to Simon and Richard's Law, which introduces new fire suppression requirements for traditionally constructed buildings converted to hotel use.

If you're planning a conversion, alteration, or change of use, this is the moment to check the fire side early. The cheapest time to fix a problem is before the work starts.

Sources: Building regulations - Building standards · Future Changes to the Domestic and Non-Domestic Technical Handbooks