Fire Risk Assessment for Australian Workplaces

A fire risk assessment is a structured evaluation of the fire hazards present in a workplace, the likelihood that those hazards will result in a fire, and the adequacy of fire prevention, detection, suppression, and evacuation controls to protect workers and others from harm. It is a legally required component of workplace fire safety management in Australia, and it forms the foundation for the fire emergency response plan, the fire warden training programme, and the routine testing and maintenance schedule for fire protection systems.

Fire is one of the most consequential workplace hazards. Australian fire services attend thousands of commercial and industrial fires annually, causing deaths, serious injuries, and billions of dollars in property and business losses. Many of these fires are preventable — they originate from ignition sources and fuel loads that a competent fire risk assessment would have identified and controlled.

A fire risk assessment is distinct from a building fire safety compliance inspection. A compliance inspection checks whether a building meets the requirements of the Building Code of Australia (BCA) and the applicable Australian Standards for fire detection, suppression, and compartmentation. A risk assessment evaluates the actual fire hazards generated by the activities conducted in the building — the processes, materials, plant, and human behaviours that create ignition sources and fuel loads — and determines whether the existing fire protection measures are adequate to control those hazards.

The legal framework governing fire risk assessment in Australian workplaces spans multiple layers of legislation, reflecting the fact that fire safety is regulated by both WHS law and building/fire safety law.

Under the WHS Act 2011, PCBUs must manage all workplace risks, including fire risks, so far as is reasonably practicable. The WHS Regulation 2025 imposes specific requirements for emergency plans, which must include procedures for managing a fire emergency, arrangements for emergency evacuation, instructions for the use of firefighting equipment, and the role of fire wardens and emergency coordinators. The WHS Regulation requires the emergency plan to provide for testing of the emergency procedures, including how often they are tested, and to be maintained so that it remains effective. AS 3745 Planning for emergencies in facilities recommends an evacuation exercise at least once every 12 months, which is the interval most workplaces adopt.

Under building legislation, the Building Code of Australia (BCA) and the National Construction Code (NCC) impose fire safety requirements on buildings — minimum standards for fire detection, suppression, compartmentation, exit provision, and emergency lighting. These requirements are enforced by local councils and building certifiers at the time of construction, renovation, or change of occupancy.

State and territory fire services legislation also imposes obligations on building owners and occupiers. In New South Wales, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation requires annual fire safety statements for buildings with fire safety measures. In Victoria, the Building Regulations require annual essential services maintenance inspections. Similar requirements apply in other states and territories.

In high-risk occupancies — including warehouses storing combustible materials, chemical storage facilities, food processing plants, automotive workshops, and buildings with large numbers of occupants — fire authorities may require a formal fire risk assessment as part of the development approval or operating licence process. The NCC specifies that buildings in certain occupancy classes must have fire safety engineering assessments, which are a specialised form of fire risk assessment conducted by a fire safety engineer.

A comprehensive fire risk assessment must identify all relevant fire hazard categories present in the workplace. The five principal categories are as follows.

Ignition sources. An ignition source is any source of heat energy sufficient to ignite a flammable or combustible material. Common ignition sources in workplaces include naked flames (welding, cutting, cooking), hot surfaces (ovens, exhaust systems, process heating equipment), electrical faults (overloaded circuits, arcing, failed insulation), mechanical sparks (grinding, cutting, machinery), static electricity (particularly in environments with flammable dusts or vapours), smoking, and arson. The assessment must identify every ignition source in the workplace and evaluate whether adequate separation from fuel sources is maintained.

Fuel sources. A fuel source is any material that can sustain combustion once ignited. In workplaces, fuel sources include flammable and combustible liquids (solvents, fuels, oils), flammable gases (LPG, acetylene, hydrogen), combustible dusts (wood, flour, sugar, metal powders), solid combustibles (timber, cardboard, plastics, paper, textiles, foam), and the building structure itself. The assessment must identify the quantity, location, and storage conditions of all fuel sources.

Oxygen supply. Combustion requires oxygen. In most workplaces, the ambient air provides adequate oxygen to sustain fire. In some industrial settings, oxygen-enriched atmospheres created by oxygen supply systems or oxygen-generating processes significantly increase fire risk.

Fire spread pathways. The assessment must evaluate how a fire originating from an identified ignition–fuel combination could spread through the workplace — through open floor areas, via conveyors, ductwork, cable trays, and service penetrations in fire-rated walls, or through stacked combustible materials that form a continuous fuel load.

Life safety factors. The assessment must consider the number of persons in the building, their mobility and ability to self-evacuate, the adequacy of exit provision, and the time available for evacuation relative to the rate at which a fire could grow to flashover.

The fire risk assessment process follows the standard WHS risk management methodology, applied specifically to fire hazards.

Step 1 — Identify fire hazards. Walk the workplace systematically to identify ignition sources, fuel sources, and conditions that could allow fire to spread rapidly. Review maintenance records for hot work permits, electrical testing records, and fire extinguisher inspection logs. Interview workers in high-risk areas, including maintenance, housekeeping, and logistics, who have direct knowledge of the ignition and fuel sources in their work areas.

Step 2 — Identify persons at risk. Consider all persons who could be harmed by a fire — not only employees but contractors, visitors, customers, and members of the public. Give particular attention to persons who may be in the building outside normal working hours, persons with mobility limitations who may have difficulty self-evacuating, and workers in areas where early warning may be delayed or escape routes may be obstructed.

Step 3 — Evaluate the risk. For each identified ignition–fuel combination, assess the likelihood that ignition will occur, the rate at which the resulting fire is likely to grow, the time available for evacuation before fire or smoke conditions become untenable, and the adequacy of fire detection, suppression, and compartmentation to contain the fire or provide sufficient warning for evacuation. The risk rating should reflect the worst credible scenario, not the most optimistic outcome.

Step 4 — Select and implement controls. Apply the hierarchy of controls to fire hazards: eliminate the ignition source or fuel source where practicable; separate ignition sources from fuel sources; apply engineering controls such as fire suppression systems, fire doors, and smoke detectors; implement administrative controls such as hot work permit systems, flammable liquids storage procedures, and fire warden training; and provide appropriate fire extinguishers and hose reels as a last-resort control for incipient-stage fires.

Step 5 — Document, communicate, and review. Record the assessment findings, communicate the results to workers and fire wardens, and review the assessment when the occupancy, processes, or materials in the workplace change significantly.

A fire risk assessment is the input to the workplace fire emergency plan required under the WHS Regulation. The emergency plan must be appropriate to the nature of the work carried out at the workplace and the size and location of the workplace.

A compliant fire emergency plan includes the following elements.

Evacuation procedures: Step-by-step instructions for evacuating the building in the event of a fire alarm, including the assembly area location, the route to the assembly area from each work area, and the procedures for accounting for all persons after evacuation.

Emergency contacts: Telephone numbers for the fire service, ambulance, building manager, and the PCBU's emergency coordinator.

Fire warden roles: The designated fire wardens for each floor or work area and their specific duties — activating the alarm, sweeping their area, directing evacuees, and reporting to the chief warden.

Equipment locations: The location of all fire extinguishers, hose reels, hydrant boosters, fire doors, emergency exits, and emergency lighting.

Testing and review schedule: A schedule for evacuation drill testing (at least annually under the WHS Regulation), equipment inspection and maintenance, and plan review.

The WHS Regulation requires the emergency plan to provide for testing of the emergency procedures, including how often they are tested, and to be maintained so that it remains effective. AS 3745 Planning for emergencies in facilities recommends an evacuation exercise at least once every 12 months, which is the interval most workplaces adopt.

We do not publish an emergency plan or fire warden checklist template; the emergency plan must be written for your own building and occupants.

Combustible dust is one of the most commonly underestimated fire and explosion risks in Australian workplaces. Virtually any organic material — wood, flour, sugar, starch, coffee, tea, coal, grain, paper, and many synthetic polymers — will form an explosive dust cloud if dispersed in air at concentrations above the minimum explosible concentration (MEC) and exposed to an ignition source.

Combustible dust fires and explosions have caused multiple fatalities in Australian food processing, timber processing, and grain handling facilities. The risk is particularly severe in facilities that use mechanical conveying, milling, or packaging equipment that generates and disperses fine particles, and where housekeeping standards allow dust to accumulate on elevated horizontal surfaces (beams, ducts, pipes, cable trays) from which it can be dispersed by a primary explosion, creating a secondary and far more devastating dust explosion.

A fire risk assessment for any facility handling organic materials or fine inorganic powders must specifically address combustible dust: the dust layer depth on horizontal surfaces, the dust concentration in enclosed spaces, the ignition sources that could initiate a primary explosion, and the potential for secondary dust explosion if accumulated dust is disturbed.

Safe Work Australia has published a code of practice on managing risks of hazardous chemicals that covers combustible dusts. State fire authorities have also published specific guidance on combustible dust explosion prevention.

Our fire and explosion risk assessments for feed mills, flour mills and bakeries (New South Wales editions) are built around this hazard, process unit by process unit.

We do not publish a general building fire risk assessment, an emergency plan or a fire warden checklist. This guide is free to use as a method for writing your own.

What we do sell is narrower: do-it-yourself fire and explosion risk assessments for three combustible dust industries, New South Wales editions only, at $450 AUD each – animal feed mills, flour mills and commercial bakeries. Each walks your own plant process unit by process unit, with hazards pre-filled and scored inherent and residual on a 5×5 matrix, controls classified against the hierarchy, and each hazard routed to the SWMS, permits, registers and plans it requires. They are completed by your own team; no site inspection is involved.

They are not a fire engineering assessment. Explosion vent sizing, hazardous area classification and fire systems design are work for a fire safety or process safety engineer, and we do not provide them.

If you want a second pair of eyes on an assessment you have completed, a Certified Industrial Hygienist can review it remotely at $250 AUD per hour, quoted per project – see Desktop Auditing.

How often should a fire risk assessment be reviewed? At a minimum, the assessment should be reviewed when there is a significant change to the workplace — a new occupant, a change in materials stored, a renovation, or a change in work processes. In high-risk occupancies, annual review is recommended. The WHS Regulation requires the emergency plan to be reviewed whenever the workplace changes in a way that may affect it.

Do I need a fire safety engineer to conduct a fire risk assessment? For most standard workplaces, a competent WHS professional or OHS consultant can conduct an adequate fire risk assessment. Fire safety engineering is required when the NCC mandates a performance solution — that is, when the building design does not comply with the deemed-to-satisfy provisions of the NCC and an engineering analysis is required to demonstrate an equivalent level of safety.

What is the difference between a fire risk assessment and a fire safety inspection? A fire safety inspection checks whether installed fire protection equipment (extinguishers, detectors, sprinklers, exits) is present, operational, and meets the applicable standard. A fire risk assessment evaluates the actual fire hazards generated by the activities in the building and whether the existing protection measures are adequate to control those hazards. Both are required.

Is an emergency evacuation drill legally required? Yes. The WHS Regulation requires the emergency plan to provide for testing of the emergency procedures, including how often they are tested, and to be maintained so that it remains effective. AS 3745 Planning for emergencies in facilities recommends an evacuation exercise at least once every 12 months, which is the interval most workplaces adopt. The drill should be documented, including the time to evacuate all persons, any issues identified, and corrective actions taken.

What fire extinguisher classes do I need? The class of extinguisher required depends on the class of fire risk: Class A (ordinary combustibles), Class B (flammable liquids), Class C (flammable gases), Class E (electrical fires — note this class is Australian-specific), Class F (cooking oils and fats). AS 2444 provides guidance on the type and number of extinguishers required for different building occupancy classes and floor areas. The fire risk assessment should verify that the extinguisher selection and placement is consistent with the identified fire hazards.