The Fire Officer said it was ok

This is something we hear quite a lot. Generally, the fire service works in 2 parts. There are operational fire fighters, (the guys and girls in fire engines), and there are inspecting fire officers, who will visit premises as part of a routine inspection programme, or they may visit following a fire, or a complaint being made about a premises. Operational fire fighters rarely impart fire safety advice in commercial and industrial premises, preferring to pass information on to their colleagues who may come to inspect your premises. We know that inspecting fire officers may offer advice, but this advice is very rarely different from the advice given by ourselves. In all of the years Red Point has been trading, we have only ever had one case where we needed to ask for a meeting with the inspecting fire officer to discuss why their findings were so vastly different from ours. So... the fire officer said it was OK We often hear this in relation to fire extinguisher provision. In the highly unlikely possibility that a fire officer gives advice on this matter, he or she still has to follow the minimum requirement of the British Standard for the installation of portable fire fighting equipment, but he or she also has to follow the requirements of the fire risk assessment for the building. Fire officers will not say it is OK when it is not.