National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) are seeking feedback on a suite of fire contaminants risk assessment templates, designed to assist fire and rescue services in developing and reviewing local risk assessments.
These risk assessments have been developed by the NFCC Fire Contaminants Working Group, and have been subject to an independent quality assurance process undertaken by a qualified occupational hygienist from Bureau Veritas. This process has provided additional professional scrutiny of the assessments, including the identified hazards, exposure risks and proposed control measures.
The templates identify common hazards associated with exposure to fire contaminants and provide control measures for services to consider. They are intended to provide a consistent national starting point and should be used as a guide rather than adopted as completed local risk assessments.
The risk assessments will ultimately be provided as a suite. However, consultation is being undertaken separately for each assessment, recognising that responsibility for reviewing and completing individual risk assessments may sit with different teams, departments or specialist areas within each fire and rescue service.
This risk assessment addresses the foreseeable hazards associated with fire contaminants encountered during fire investigation activities and sets out controls to minimise direct and secondary exposure. Fire investigators may be exposed through contact with contaminated materials and debris, and through activities that disturb and release contaminants into the air, including sifting, excavating, moving debris and recovering evidence.
You can view the risk assessment here: Fire investigation
If you would like to prepare your response, you can review the questions in advance HERE. There is also a save and continue function that can be used throughout the consultation so that you can return to your response later and pick up where you left off.
This survey will close 9am Monday 23rd November 2026. If you have any questions, please contact richard.mcmenemy@nfcc.org.uk
Thank you for taking the time to respond to this consultation.
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