The five-minute weekly fire walk

An assessment gives you a picture of your building on one day. The rest of the year, it changes. Desks move, boxes arrive, someone props a door because the corridor is hot. A weekly walk keeps the picture true.

It should take five minutes and one person. Nobody needs a clipboard, although a phone for photographs is useful. The skill is in doing it the same way every time, so that what has changed stands out.

Begin at the exits. Walk from the furthest corner of the building to each way out. Look at the floor and the width of the route. If you have to squeeze past something, so would a crowd. Check that the exit doors open easily without a key and that nothing is stored in front of them.

Look at the doors. Doors that are meant to be shut should be shut. Doors that are held open should be held by a device that releases when the alarm sounds, not by a chair, a bin or a wedge.

Check what is plugged in. Heaters, kettles, toasters and chargers should plug into a wall, not into a chain of extension blocks. Look for warm plugs, frayed leads and anything left on overnight.

See what is stored. Paper, packaging and cleaning products burn. They should be kept away from the exits, away from heaters and out of the stair. A small stock in a metal cupboard is better than a large one on the floor.

Look at the alarm. Is the panel showing a fault? Is the weekly test recorded? If the alarm is tested on the same day each week, put the walk on the same day, and one visit does both.

Note what you changed. Keep a one-page log: the date, who walked, what was found and what was done. Add a photograph when something needed fixing. It does not have to be neat. It has to exist.

Tell people. If you find a wedge, do not simply remove it. Ask why it was there. The answer is usually a door that is too heavy, a spring that is too strong or a corridor that gets too hot. Fix that and the wedge does not come back.

A weekly walk is not a substitute for a professional assessment. It cannot judge whether your escape routes are long enough or whether your alarm covers the building, but it does mean the assessor finds a building that is looked after. When we visit a workplace with a log, the visit is quicker and the report is shorter.

Start this week. Pick a day, set a reminder and walk.