A quiet but significant change to the legal landscape means that marina operators, boatyard managers, and harbour authorities across the UK are now firmly within scope of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. For years, many smaller operations relied on the "under five employees" exemption as a reason to defer a formal fire risk assessment. That exemption is gone. If you operate premises to which staff, contractors, or members of the public have access, the duty to have a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment in place applies to you.

At the same time, the Port Marine Facilities Safety Code has been updated, and the Yacht Harbour Association is preparing to release its 8th Edition Code of Practice, the most comprehensive revision the sector has seen in years. We anticipate that fire safety will feature prominently within it. The direction of travel across the industry is clear: fire risk management at a marina is not optional, and it is not a one-page form.

A Genuinely High-Risk Environment

Marinas and waterside sites are not just unusual settings for a standard assessment. They present a genuinely distinct set of hazards. The combination of combustible materials, fuel, and electrical systems found on any busy marina makes fire risk a constant and specific concern.

Pleasure and working craft are built from materials that burn readily and produce toxic smoke. Fuel storage and bunkering points bring flammable liquid risks. LPG cylinders aboard liveaboards and leisure vessels introduce a pressure explosion hazard. Dry stack facilities concentrate a large number of vessels in a small footprint, meaning a single ignition can spread rapidly and involve multiple boats and structures. Hot works on vessels in a boatyard are a common ignition source that requires structured control.

Then there is the geography. Fire appliances cannot access pontoons. The Fire and Rescue Service will be working at a distance from the seat of any fire. And on many sites there is a transient population of berth holders, visitors, and members of the public who do not know the site, may never have read the emergency procedures, and may be sleeping aboard overnight.

What Good Fire Safety Management Actually Looks Like

In our experience carrying out fire risk assessments across marine and waterside environments, a Fire Risk Assessment alone is rarely sufficient. What good operators have alongside it is a site-specific Fire Safety Plan that translates the findings of the assessment into practical, actionable procedures for the site.

The Fire Risk Assessment itself must go beyond a generic checklist. It must identify the specific hazards on your site: fuel sources, combustible materials, electrical equipment, and hot works activity. It must identify all the people at risk, not just employees but berth holders, visiting boat owners, contractors, and the general public. It must evaluate the risk, set out how it is controlled, record the findings, and be kept under review. Critically, it needs to be developed in dialogue with your local fire and rescue authority, not produced as a desk exercise and filed away.

A Fire Safety Plan gives the assessment its operational teeth. It should cover evacuation routes and exits from the pontoons as well as the shore side, muster points, alarm raising, firefighting equipment locations, emergency service access arrangements, how people are accounted for, and the roles and responsibilities of staff in an emergency. For marinas specifically, we also recommend holding vessel information for each berth covering fuel types, tank locations, and gas isolator positions, so that emergency services arriving at an incident have the site-specific information they need from the outset.

Alarm and detection provision is an area where marina sites frequently fall short. Coverage needs to be thought through across the whole site, including the water side, not just the buildings and facilities on shore. Similarly, firefighting equipment provision needs to be matched to the actual risks on site and maintained in a way that means it will work when it is needed. Regular inspection, clear labelling, unobstructed access, and proper maintenance records are all basic requirements that are frequently missed.

Partnering with the Sector's Specialists

We are pleased to announce that Empyrean Fire Consultancy is working in partnership with P&D Marine Services to bring specialist fire safety support to the UK marina and boatyard sector.

P&D Marine Services are TYHA members with over 50 years of hands-on experience in marinas, harbours, and boatyards across the UK. Their team offers equipment supply and servicing, LOLER and PUWER inspections, operational training, and comprehensive boatyard and marina health and safety audits. They understand how these sites actually operate, the pressures that marina managers face day to day, and what good practice looks like in a working marine environment.

That knowledge, combined with Empyrean Fire Consultancy's fire risk assessment expertise, means marina and boatyard operators can access joined-up, specialist fire safety support with no gaps between the disciplines.

The Right Time to Act

The regulatory changes are already here. The sector's own guidance is moving in the same direction. If your fire safety documentation is not current, was not produced with the marine environment in mind, or simply has not been reviewed since you last made changes to the site, now is the time to address it.

Contact Empyrean Fire Consultancy at info@empyreanfire.co.uk or call us on 020 3633 9078, or visit P&D Marine Services to find out more about their full range of boatyard and marina support services.

Chris Goodman MIFSM L4Dip DipFD MinstRE is Commercial Director at Empyrean Fire Consultancy Ltd, a specialist fire safety consultancy.