HIQA published Version 1.2 of its Fire Safety Handbook in March 2025. It is written for providers and staff of designated centres and covers the fire safety programme expected in centres for older people, people with disabilities and children in special care units.

The handbook is useful. It brings governance, resident risk, evacuation, building maintenance, firefighting equipment and staff training into one document. For providers, that is helpful. It gives a clear view of what inspectors are likely to look for during registration, renewal and inspection.

There is one area, however, where the handbook needs to be read with care. It deals with training for a fire involving clothing, but it does not prescribe one exact response. That matters. In a real incident, the safest action depends on the resident, the member of staff, the equipment available and the setting.

The Handbook Is Guidance

The HIQA handbook is guidance. It is not a replacement for the Health Act 2007 regulations, the Fire Services Acts, building control requirements or the centre's own fire risk assessment. The regulations are the legal requirement. Standards and guidance help providers show good practice, but they do not remove the need for professional judgement.

The handbook also says that it cannot answer every fire safety question for every designated centre. That is a fair statement. No national handbook can deal with every bedroom layout, smoking arrangement, evacuation policy, staffing level or resident support need.

Providers should use the document as a framework, not as a method statement. Where the risk is serious or the setting is complex, the answer should be developed with a competent fire safety professional who understands both fire safety and the care environment.

Training For Clothing Fires

The handbook rightly identifies clothing fires as a training issue. Fires involving clothing can arise in smoking areas, near cooking activities, around heaters, during oxygen use or where bedding, dressings or loose clothing become involved in ignition.

The point that should not be missed is this: the handbook requires staff to be trained in techniques for dealing with a fire involving clothing. It does not say that a fire blanket must always be used. It does not say that a portable extinguisher must always be used. It leaves room for the centre to assess the risk and train staff in a response that can actually work.

That is the right way to look at it. A written procedure that looks neat in a file is not enough. Staff need a response they can carry out under pressure, with the residents they actually care for, in the rooms and smoking areas they actually use.

Why A Blanket May Not Be Realistic

Fire blankets have a place in fire safety. HIQA refers to fire blankets in kitchens, and to additional blankets in other areas where a risk assessment shows they are needed. I.S. EN 1869:2019 also recognises that a large enough fire blanket may be suitable for smothering clothing that is on fire.

That does not mean a blanket is always the best response in a designated centre. A standard can say an item is suitable for a type of use, while the risk assessment can still show that it is not the most realistic option for a particular resident group or staff team.

In practice, a carer may be half the size of the resident. The resident may be standing, panicking, confused, resisting help, using a wheelchair or connected to oxygen equipment. The member of staff may have to get within arm's length of flames, unfold the blanket correctly, control the resident's movement and wrap the burning area tightly enough to smother the fire.

That is a lot to expect in the first few seconds of an emergency. It also places the staff member very close to the fire. If the blanket is too small, badly applied or pulled away too soon, the fire may not be fully controlled. If heat is trapped against the body, the burn injury can still be severe even after the flames are out.

This is not an argument for removing fire blankets from places where they are required. It is an argument against assuming that a fire blanket is the practical answer to every clothing fire involving a resident.

Portable Extinguishers Need More Attention

For a clothing fire on a person, a suitable water-based portable extinguisher can be a more realistic control. It allows a trained member of staff to act from a safer distance. It can knock down the flames quickly and begin cooling the burning clothing and the skin beneath it.

That is why the focus should be on the right extinguisher, in the right place, with the right training. A water or suitable water mist extinguisher may make far more sense in a smoking area than expecting a smaller carer to wrap a larger resident in a blanket while the resident is in pain and moving unpredictably.

This does not mean any extinguisher will do. CO2 extinguishers should not be used on a person. The discharge is extremely cold and the gas displaces oxygen. Powder and foam also raise practical concerns for use on a person. The extinguisher type, location and training should be decided by a competent person, based on the actual risk.

In simple terms, if a provider has a foreseeable clothing fire risk, the fire safety programme should not stop at providing a fire blanket. It should consider whether staff need access to a suitable water-based extinguisher and whether they have been trained to use it safely.

Smoking Areas Are The Obvious Test

Smoking areas are where this issue becomes very practical. The handbook refers to controls such as supervision, flame-retardant furniture, suitable ashtrays, call facilities, firefighting equipment and protective smoking aprons or blankets where needed.

A protective smoking apron is not the same as a fire blanket. A smoking apron is worn to reduce the chance of clothing catching fire. A fire blanket is firefighting equipment used after a fire has started. Staff must understand the difference, because the items are not interchangeable.

Where residents smoke, the risk assessment should ask direct questions. Could this resident drop a cigarette onto clothing or bedding? Is oxygen used nearby? Can the resident understand and follow instructions? Can staff reach the resident quickly? Is a fire blanket realistic for this resident? Would a water-based extinguisher be safer and quicker?

Those questions are more useful than simply ticking off an equipment list.

What Providers Should Do

Providers should review their clothing fire procedure, especially in smoking areas, bedrooms and any area where oxygen, cooking or loose clothing increases the risk.

The procedure should tell staff how to raise the alarm, call for help, stop the person moving where this is possible, use stop, drop and roll where the resident can follow it, use the selected equipment, cool the burn and get medical help. It should also say when a fire blanket may be appropriate and when a water-based extinguisher is likely to be the safer option.

Training should be practical. Staff need to handle the equipment, understand its limits and discuss realistic scenarios. A provider cannot assume that staff will know what to do because a fire blanket or extinguisher is mounted on the wall.

The risk assessment should also consider staff capability. If a procedure depends on a smaller member of staff physically controlling a larger resident who is on fire, it is not a dependable procedure. Fire safety arrangements must be designed around the people who live and work in the centre.

The Main Point

The HIQA handbook is a useful document, but it should be read with professional judgement. It requires attention to clothing fires and staff training. It does not prescribe one fixed response.

Fire blankets remain part of the equipment picture. They may be appropriate in some clothing fire scenarios and are still expected in kitchens. But for many resident clothing fires, especially in smoking areas, a suitable water-based portable extinguisher is likely to be the more realistic and safer first response for trained staff.

The provider's job is to make that decision deliberately, record the reasoning and train staff in the response that has been selected.

Building The Response Around The Resident

The main weakness in many clothing fire procedures is that they are written for an ideal incident. The resident is assumed to stand still, understand instructions, accept help and allow staff to apply the selected equipment. That is not how most emergencies unfold in a care setting.

A realistic procedure should start with the resident profile. A person with dementia, reduced mobility, poor balance, hearing loss, visual impairment, oxygen equipment or a history of distress during personal care may not respond in the way a training video suggests. Some residents will try to run. Some will freeze. Some will resist being touched. Some will be seated in a chair or wheelchair when the fire starts. Those details affect the response.

This is why the method should not be chosen only because a piece of equipment is already mounted nearby. The provider has to ask whether staff can use it quickly and safely with that resident group. If the answer is no, the control is weak, even if the equipment itself is compliant.

The same point applies to staffing. Night staffing, agency cover, lone working in a smoking area and the physical size of the resident all matter. A procedure that depends on two strong staff members being immediately available may fail if the first responder is a smaller carer working alone.

What A Good Clothing Fire Plan Should Record

The clothing fire plan should be short enough for staff to remember, but clear enough to remove doubt. It should say how staff raise the alarm, call for assistance, stop the resident moving where this is possible, select the right equipment, extinguish the flames, cool the burn and get medical help.

Where a fire blanket is retained as part of the response, the plan should explain when it is suitable and when it is not. For example, a blanket may be easier to use where the resident is already on the floor or where the burning area can be covered quickly without staff putting themselves directly into the flame path. It may be much less suitable where the resident is standing, moving, distressed or physically difficult to control.

Where a water-based extinguisher is selected as the preferred response, the plan should identify the extinguisher type, its location, the distance from the risk area and who is trained to use it. It should also make clear that CO2 extinguishers are not to be used on a person.

The decision should be recorded in the fire safety risk assessment, the smoking risk assessment where relevant, and the training records. This protects the resident, but it also protects the provider. It shows that the centre did not simply follow a generic equipment list. It considered the real risk and selected a response that staff can carry out.

The First Real Attempt Cannot Be The Emergency

There is another practical point that should not be ignored. Staff are not normally trained by applying a fire blanket to a live person, or to a moving training manikin, while real flames are coming from clothing. That would be unsafe and unrealistic as a routine training exercise.

In many cases, the closest staff will get is a classroom explanation, a video, or a demonstration using a blanket on a static object. That is very different from approaching a resident who is frightened, in pain, moving unpredictably and possibly larger or stronger than the carer trying to help.

If the centre's procedure depends on a member of staff wrapping a resident in a fire blanket, the provider has to ask whether that member of staff has ever practised anything close to the task they are being asked to perform. If the honest answer is no, then the first real attempt could be during the emergency itself.

That is a weak basis for a life safety procedure. A suitable water-based extinguisher still needs training, but the physical task is more repeatable. Staff can practise the sequence, stance, aim and discharge without needing to simulate direct contact with a person on fire.

Training Has To Be Practical

Annual fire training is not enough if clothing fire response is dealt with as a single slide or a passing comment. Staff need to handle the equipment and talk through realistic incidents. They need to know what to do if the resident runs, if the resident is in a wheelchair, if oxygen is present, if the first extinguisher is not available, or if the fire starts during supervised smoking.

Table-top discussion is useful, but it should not be the whole training method. Staff should practise locating the extinguisher, lifting it from the bracket, removing the safety pin and aiming correctly. Fire blanket training, where provided, should also be honest about its limits. It should not leave staff believing that wrapping a moving adult in a blanket is a simple task.

After training, the provider should ask a simple question: would the member of staff on duty be able to do this at three o'clock in the morning, under pressure, with the residents actually living in the centre? If the answer is doubtful, the procedure needs to be revised.

Linking The Procedure To Care Plans

The response should also be linked to each resident's care plan where the risk is personal. A general smoking policy is useful, but it will not always tell staff enough about the person in front of them. If a resident needs supervised smoking, uses oxygen, wears loose clothing, has reduced dexterity or cannot follow instructions during an emergency, the fire safety controls should be reflected in their individual plan.

That plan does not need to become a technical fire report. It should simply make the agreed controls visible to staff. For example, it may state that smoking takes place only in a named area, that a smoking apron is used, that a member of staff remains present, that a water-based extinguisher is available, and that staff are trained not to use CO2 on a person.

Where the risk changes, the plan should change. A resident who starts oxygen therapy, becomes less mobile, begins smoking again or has a change in cognition may need a fresh review. The fire safety arrangements should follow the resident's actual needs, not the needs recorded at admission months or years earlier.

This is also useful during inspection. It allows the provider to show a clear line from risk assessment to equipment, training and care planning. That is stronger than saying staff will use whatever is nearest when a resident's clothing catches fire.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the HIQA Fire Safety Handbook a legal requirement?

No. It is guidance produced to help providers meet their obligations. The legal duties sit in the relevant regulations, the Fire Services Acts and other applicable legislation.

Does the handbook prescribe one method for clothing fires?

No. It deals with training and techniques for clothing fires. It does not prescribe one piece of equipment or one exact approach for every centre.

Are fire blankets suitable for clothing fires?

A large enough fire blanket may be suitable for smothering clothing that is on fire. The practical question is whether staff can use it safely and effectively on the resident in front of them.

Why focus on portable extinguishers?

A suitable water-based extinguisher can be used from a safer distance and can cool as well as extinguish. In many care settings this may be more realistic than asking a smaller carer to wrap and control a larger resident with a blanket.

Should CO2 extinguishers be used on a person?

No. CO2 extinguishers should not be used on a person. Providers should take competent advice on the correct extinguisher type for this risk.

What should providers review now?

Review smoking areas, resident clothing fire risks, oxygen use, staff training, extinguisher selection, fire blanket provision and the written procedure for clothing fires.

Contact Us

For practical advice on fire safety arrangements, training and compliance in designated centres, contact Phoenix STS on 043 334 9611 or visit our contact page.

This article is for general information only and is not legal or professional advice. Providers should obtain advice for their own centre from a competent fire safety professional.