This research prepared this handbook, with the assistance of Standards New Zealand Committee P 4525 Fire Risk Management, in accordance with the joint Standard AS/NZS4360 Risk management and SAA/SNZ HB 436 Risk management guidelines to enable better management of fire risks in places of work.

This Handbook helps you to identify how fires could start in your workplace and shows simple precautions that will help prevent fires from starting, how to control their effects and how to recover more quickly from any fire. It seeks to promote the use and benefits of good fire risk management practices across a wide range of places of work as a way of preventing injury and loss and ensuring the delivery of organisational objectives.

This Handbook provides a broad approach, including definitions, processes, tools and examples to help organisations understand and ensure effective management of fire-related risks. The Handbook also provides an overview of the generic risk management process, as defined in AS/NZS 4360, along with guidance for the user to apply this process in New Zealand organisations in relation to fire-related risks.