Your office, shop or warehouse might be closing for Christmas, but fire risks don’t disappear when everyone goes home. Before you lock the doors, there are a few important things worth checking to make sure your building remains safe throughout the holiday period.
Christmas is approaching, and like many businesses, you’re probably looking forward to a few quieter days.
Perhaps your office is closing until January, the warehouse is running with a skeleton team, or your shop will be shut for several days between Christmas and New Year.
The decorations are up, the last deliveries are arriving and everybody is looking forward to finishing work.
But before you lock the doors and head home, there’s something worth considering.
Does your building’s fire safety arrangement still work when hardly anybody is there?
Most fire risk assessments consider how premises are normally occupied and operated. But over Christmas, those arrangements can change considerably.
The fire wardens might be on holiday, the person responsible for the fire alarm could be away, and the building may be occupied only by cleaners, security staff or contractors.
Meanwhile, fewer people are around to notice smoke, investigate an alarm or raise the alert if something goes wrong.
A quiet building isn’t necessarily a safer building. It simply presents a different set of circumstances.
So before your business closes for Christmas, here are five practical fire safety checks worth making.
1. Can Everyone Still Get Out When the Building Is Locked?
It sounds obvious, but securing a building for the Christmas shutdown can create unexpected problems.
Imagine a cleaner working late on Christmas Eve. The last office employee leaves, sets the security alarm and locks the main entrance.
The cleaner is still upstairs.
If a fire starts, can they leave the building safely without needing a key, access card or somebody else’s assistance?
Under Article 14 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, emergency routes and exits must remain available where necessary for the safety of people using the premises.
Emergency exit doors must not be locked or fastened in a way that prevents them from being easily and immediately opened by somebody who may need to escape.
The Home Office’s fire safety guidance for offices and shops recognises that arrangements may change when only a small number of people remain in a building.
For example, some exits might be secured outside normal opening hours, provided sufficient alternative escape routes remain available and those still inside understand how to use them.
But that decision needs to consider the building’s layout, escape distances, occupancy and fire risks. It shouldn’t simply be left to whoever happens to lock up.
Before closing, walk the escape routes and check that doors operate correctly. Make sure corridors and staircases haven’t become temporary storage areas for Christmas stock, delivery cages, cardboard boxes or decorations.
It’s also worth checking that fire extinguishers and manual call points remain accessible and that nothing has been stored beneath or too close to sprinkler heads.
If cleaners, maintenance contractors or security staff will remain on site, establish which exits must stay available and make sure everybody understands the arrangements.
For more information about securing doors without compromising escape, see our guidance on whether a fire door can be locked.
2. Is Your Fire Alarm Working, and Who Will Respond If It Activates?
This is probably one of the most important checks to make before the Christmas break.
When the building is normally occupied, somebody is likely to notice a fire alarm fault or an unexpected activation.
But what happens when the premises are empty for several days?
Before closing, check the fire alarm control panel for fault indications, disabled zones or equipment that may have been isolated during recent work.
It’s surprisingly easy for part of a system to remain disabled after contractors have completed their work, particularly where the isolation wasn’t properly recorded or reinstated.
Under Article 17 of the Fire Safety Order, necessary fire safety equipment must be subject to suitable maintenance arrangements and kept in efficient working order and good repair.
If the fire alarm has an outstanding fault, don’t simply assume it can wait until January. Establish what the fault affects, arrange competent assistance and consider whether temporary precautions are necessary.
Will the Fire and Rescue Service Attend an Automatic Fire Alarm?
This is something business owners shouldn’t take for granted.
Fire and rescue services have changed how they respond to automatic fire alarm signals, particularly in commercial premises where people don’t normally sleep.
For example, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service introduced confirmation-based arrangements for automatic fire alarms in non-domestic business premises, rather than automatically sending an appliance to every activation.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service changed its policy in August 2025. For many commercial premises without sleeping risks, crews are no longer automatically dispatched to unconfirmed automatic alarms between 8am and 6pm. Exceptions apply, including certain higher-risk premises and circumstances where signs of fire are reported.
Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service also changed its automatic alarm response policy in September 2024, affecting premises such as shops, offices and other commercial buildings.
These policies don’t mean the fire service won’t attend a genuine fire. Confirmed fires and emergency 999 calls continue to receive a response in accordance with the relevant service’s procedures.
However, they do mean you shouldn’t assume that an automatic alarm signal will always result in firefighters being sent to your building.
Who Is on Your Christmas Keyholder List?
If your fire alarm is connected to an Alarm Receiving Centre, check that the monitoring company has the correct emergency contact details.
Is your normal keyholder going abroad for Christmas? Is the deputy available? Does the person covering know how to access the building, locate the fire alarm panel and follow the emergency procedures?
A keyholder who is unavailable or doesn’t know what to do isn’t much use when an alarm activates at 2am on Boxing Day.
The monitoring arrangements should also be clear about when the emergency services will be contacted and how an alarm will be investigated safely.
Nobody should put themselves at risk by entering a potentially dangerous building to investigate an alarm. If there are signs of fire, call 999 and follow the emergency procedures.
For more information, see our guide to fire alarm servicing and maintenance.
3. Have You Dealt With the Fire Safety Defects Already Reported?
Christmas can be a useful opportunity to review the building’s outstanding fire safety defects.
Perhaps the last emergency lighting inspection identified a failed fitting in the rear staircase. Maybe a fire door isn’t closing properly, or a detector has been reported as faulty.
These problems may already be recorded in a maintenance report or fire risk assessment action plan.
But have they actually been repaired?
A defect that’s been outstanding for several months doesn’t become less important because the building is closing for Christmas.
In fact, the reduced occupancy and different working arrangements may make some defects more significant.
For example, a failed emergency light on a staircase could present additional difficulties for a lone cleaner working after dark. A defective fire door could allow smoke to spread into an escape route before anybody notices a fire.
The Home Office’s guidance for Responsible Persons makes clear that essential fire safety equipment must be properly maintained and that defects should be addressed as soon as practicable.
Before the shutdown, review the outstanding defects relating to fire alarms, emergency lighting, fire doors, smoke control systems and other important precautions.
Where repairs cannot be completed before Christmas, establish whether the remaining risk is acceptable, whether temporary measures are required and who is responsible for progressing the work.
It’s also worth confirming that the building’s regular testing and maintenance arrangements will continue where necessary during the closure.
Locking the doors for two weeks doesn’t suspend the Responsible Person’s fire safety duties.
4. What’s Been Left Outside the Building?
Christmas can produce an extraordinary amount of waste.
Packaging from deliveries, cardboard boxes, pallets, decorations and overflowing bins can accumulate surprisingly quickly, particularly when waste collections are disrupted by bank holidays.
And while most businesses focus on keeping escape routes clear inside the building, the outside deserves attention too.
Combustible waste stored against a building can provide fuel for a deliberately started fire.
Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s arson prevention guidance highlights how bins, skips and other combustible materials can be used to start fires that may subsequently spread to nearby buildings.
An overflowing bin store beside a ground-floor window or external door can create a risk that might otherwise be avoided.
The government’s guidance for small non-domestic premises similarly recommends keeping refuse and combustible materials away from buildings, particularly windows and other openings, or within appropriately secured storage areas.
Before Christmas, make sure that unnecessary waste has been removed, bins are properly secured and skips are collected where practical.
Check that pallets, packaging and other combustible materials haven’t been left against the building.
External fire exits and access routes should also remain clear.
It’s worth considering the building’s security arrangements, particularly where the premises will be unoccupied for an extended period.
Good housekeeping, appropriate lighting and preventing unauthorised access can all help reduce the opportunity for deliberate fire-setting.
For blocks of flats, the circumstances may be different. Residential buildings often become busier over Christmas, with additional visitors, deliveries and parcels.
Communal corridors and staircases must remain clear, even when residents are receiving more deliveries than usual.
5. Who Will Actually Be in the Building Over Christmas?
Most businesses develop their emergency procedures around normal working arrangements.
There are managers on site, trained fire wardens available and sufficient employees to assist with an evacuation.
But Christmas can change all of that.
Perhaps the office will be occupied by only two employees, the normal fire wardens are away and a maintenance contractor is working in the plant room.
Or the building is closed to customers, but cleaners and security personnel are still attending.
Under Article 15 of the Fire Safety Order, the Responsible Person must establish suitable emergency procedures and nominate sufficient competent people to implement evacuation arrangements.
The necessary arrangements must reflect the people actually using the building, not simply the staffing levels that exist during a normal working week.
The Home Office specifically recognises that fire safety arrangements may need to change for people working alone, outside normal hours or during periods when ordinary staffing arrangements don’t apply.
Before the shutdown, establish who will be on site and whether they understand the emergency procedures.
Do they know how to raise the alarm, which escape routes are available and where to assemble? Who calls the emergency services, and who will meet attending firefighters?
If they’re working alone, is there an appropriate means of obtaining assistance?
Where employees need help to evacuate, make sure suitable arrangements remain available during the holiday period.
What About Contractors Working During the Shutdown?
Christmas is often an opportunity to undertake maintenance or refurbishment work that would be disruptive while the building is fully occupied.
But those activities can introduce additional fire hazards.
Welding, grinding, cutting and other hot work can create ignition sources in areas that may subsequently be left unoccupied.
Where hot work cannot reasonably be avoided, it should be subject to appropriate precautions, including a suitable permit-to-work system where necessary.
The government’s guidance for small commercial premises specifically identifies hot work permits as a way of controlling higher-risk contractor activities.
Before leaving the building, the contractor and the person responsible for the premises should confirm that the work area has been made safe, combustible materials have been controlled and the necessary post-work checks have been completed.
Any fire alarm devices isolated during the work should be properly reinstated and tested as appropriate.
Our article on hot works permits and why businesses need them explains these arrangements in more detail.
Does Closing for Christmas Mean You Need a New Fire Risk Assessment?
Not automatically.
However, the Responsible Person must consider whether the existing assessment remains suitable for the way the premises will be occupied and operated during the closure.
Under Article 9(3) of the Fire Safety Order, fire risk assessments must be reviewed regularly and particularly where there’s reason to suspect they are no longer valid or where significant changes have occurred.
A short period of reduced occupancy doesn’t necessarily require a completely new assessment.
But changes involving lone working, restricted escape routes, significant maintenance work or impaired fire safety equipment may justify a review and additional precautions.
A short, documented Christmas shutdown check is a practical way of establishing whether the existing arrangements remain suitable.
It should identify who completed the checks, any defects found, what action was taken and any temporary arrangements required.
This doesn’t replace the fire risk assessment, routine servicing or statutory inspections. It helps establish that those arrangements remain effective while the building is being used differently.
Don’t Let Fire Safety Take a Christmas Holiday
For many businesses, the Christmas shutdown is one of the few opportunities to close the doors, reduce operating costs and give staff a well-earned break.
But the building still needs appropriate fire safety arrangements.
In some respects, the risks may be greater when fewer people are present. A fire might take longer to be discovered, an alarm might not receive the expected response, and an essential defect could remain unnoticed until the premises reopen.
The good news is that many of the necessary checks are straightforward.
Walk the escape routes, check the fire alarm panel, review outstanding defects, clear combustible waste from around the building and make sure anyone who will remain on site understands the emergency arrangements.
And most importantly, establish who will respond if something goes wrong while the building is closed.
Because locking the doors for Christmas should mean the business is taking a break, not that its fire safety arrangements have stopped working.
Fire Risk Assessments and Christmas Shutdown Advice from ESI: Fire Safety
At ESI: Fire Safety, we help businesses, landlords, facilities managers and managing agents understand their fire safety responsibilities and maintain suitable precautions throughout the year.
Our services include fire risk assessments, fire safety compliance reviews, fire alarm consultancy, fire door inspections and practical advice on building management and emergency arrangements.
We work with offices, shops, restaurants, warehouses and commercial premises across Frimley, Fleet, Aldershot, Wokingham, Bracknell and Basingstoke, together with surrounding areas.
If you’re planning a Christmas shutdown, arranging maintenance work during the holiday period or need advice about outstanding fire safety defects, we can help establish whether your existing arrangements remain suitable.
ESI: Fire Safety — No Shortcuts in Safety.
Contact ESI: Fire Safety or call 01276 300 351 to discuss your fire risk assessment or fire safety arrangements.
This article focuses on fire safety responsibilities in England. The relevant provisions of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 also apply in Wales. Automatic fire alarm attendance policies vary between fire and rescue services and may change.
