A recent fatal bar fire in Switzerland has highlighted, once again, how quickly a busy hospitality venue can become unsafe when fire spreads and escape routes are compromised. Investigations are now focusing on building materials, management decisions and fire safety compliance.
While this incident occurred overseas, the risk factors are familiar. Many pubs, bars and night-time venues across Birmingham and the Midlands operate from older or converted buildings, often with basements, high occupancy levels and late trading hours. These conditions demand robust, realistic fire risk management.
Pub Fires in the UK: A Known Risk
Fires in pubs and hospitality premises occur every year in the UK. The most common causes include:
- Cooking and kitchen equipment
- Electrical faults
- Smoking materials
- Flammable décor and poor-quality fit-outs
In crowded venues, smoke spread, lighting loss and delayed evacuation often pose the greatest threat. Fires do not need to be large to cause serious harm.
Basements and Older Buildings
Cellars and basements — common in Midlands pubs — frequently house storage, plant or electrical equipment. Fires starting below ground can develop unnoticed, rapidly filling escape routes with smoke and cutting off exits above. These risks are often underestimated but are critical to assess properly.
Fire Risk Assessments: A Legal Requirement
Under UK fire safety legislation, every pub, bar and nightclub must have a suitable and sufficient Fire Risk Assessment.
This must be site-specific, reflect how the premises is actually used, and be acted upon.
Following an incident, enforcement authorities will examine whether foreseeable risks were identified and managed.
Ignorance is not a defence.
Experience with Complex, High-Occupancy Buildings
Fire safety in pubs shares many challenges with other complex premises. JCH Safety routinely carries out Fire Risk Assessments for:
- Schools and academies
- Gyms and leisure facilities
- Retail units and shopping parks
- Warehouses and industrial spaces
This experience ensures assessments conside real occupancy patterns, evacuation behaviour, structural complexity and management arrangements — not generic tick-box templates.
Fire Risk Assessments for Pubs – From £375
JCH Safety provides clear, practical and proportionate Fire Risk Assessments, tailored to licensed and high-occupancy premises.
Covering Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, Leicester, Nottingham and the wider Midlands
Pub Fire Risk Assessments from £375.
Fire safety is not about paperwork —
it’s about making decisions that protect people, businesses and reputations before something goes wrong.
Book your fire risk assessment now!
