Fire Safety Awareness for Building Services
Build your understanding of fire safety and the part you play in reducing risk
Fire safety is everyone’s responsibility. This free online course provides a practical introduction to how fires start and spread, common fire hazards, fire protection measures and the actions to take in an emergency.
Developed with building engineering services and construction environments in mind, the course uses relevant examples including hot work, electrical installations, service penetrations, fire dampers and work around fire protection systems. It provides broad fire safety awareness rather than specialist or role-specific technical training.
Whether you are new to the industry or want to refresh your knowledge, the course helps you understand how everyday decisions and working practices can affect fire safety.
Who is this course for?
This course is suitable for those operating in building engineering services, including:
- Contractors and operatives
- Installers
- Supervisors and site managers
- Engineers
- Apprentices and people entering the industry
- Other employees who would benefit from a general introduction to fire safety
What will you learn?
By the end of the course, you should be able to:
- Explain how fires start, develop and spread
- Recognise common ignition sources, fuel sources and fire hazards
- Identify risks associated with activities such as hot work, electrical installations and material storage
- Describe the role of active and passive fire protection
- Understand how building services work can affect compartmentation, firestopping and fire dampers
- Outline what to do when discovering a fire, hearing an alarm or evacuating a site
- Recognise the main types of fire extinguisher and understand when it may be safe and appropriate to use one
- Describe the potential consequences of fire for individuals, businesses and communities
Course content
The course consists of eight lessons:
- How Fires Start and Spread
- Fire Hazards
- Reducing Fire Risk on Site
- Active Fire Protection
- Passive Fire Protection
- Emergency Response
- Fire Extinguishers
- Consequences of Fire
Course details
- Delivery: Online, self-directed learning
- Course duration: Approximately 75 minutes, excluding the assessment
- Cost: Free for BESA members and non-members
- Entry requirements: No previous formal fire safety training required
- Assessment: 15 multiple-choice questions
- Certificate: A BESA Academy certificate can be downloaded after successful completion
Important information
This is an awareness-level course designed to improve general understanding of fire safety. It does not provide practical fire extinguisher training or qualify a learner to undertake specialist fire safety work. The fire extinguisher content is explicitly presented at awareness level and is not a substitute for practical training.
Learners must continue to follow their employer’s procedures, site-specific fire safety arrangements, risk assessments and instructions from the responsible person.