CSCS Fire Safety & Emergency Procedures Questions
Fire prevention, extinguisher types and emergency response.
These questions cover fire safety & emergency procedures for the CITB Health, Safety and Environment (HS&E) test, the exam UK construction workers pass to get a CSCS card.
Fire Safety & Emergency Procedures: practice quiz
- 20 questions · 30 minutes · pass mark 90%
- Answers and explanations are shown at the end, with every question to review.
- A fresh 20 questions every time, drawn from all 143 in this topic's bank. Includes 2 select-two questions and 2 picture questions, as in the real test.
- About 90 seconds a question, against about 54 in the real test, so there is time to think.
10 sample Fire Safety & Emergency Procedures questions and answers
These 10 come from the 143 questions the practice quiz above draws from, written out with the correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Read them through when you want to revise rather than test yourself.
1. What does regulation 29 of CDM 2015 require steps to be taken against?
Answer: Fire or explosion, flooding, and substances liable to cause asphyxiation
- A) Fire or explosion, flooding, and substances liable to cause asphyxiation (correct answer)
- B) Fire and explosion only, since flooding is dealt with elsewhere in law
- C) Only substances that are classified as flammable under the CLP rules
- D) Only fires started deliberately by persons who trespass on the site
Why: Regulation 29 groups the three together and requires suitable and sufficient steps to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, the risk of injury from each.
2. What does Class A cover in the fire classification system?
Answer: Solid materials such as wood, paper, cardboard and textiles
- A) Flammable liquids such as petrol, diesel and white spirit
- B) Cooking oils and fats used in commercial kitchen fryers
- C) Flammable gases such as propane, butane and natural gas
- D) Solid materials such as wood, paper, cardboard and textiles (correct answer)
Why: Class A covers solid combustible materials. Class B is flammable liquids, Class C flammable gases, Class D metals and Class F cooking oils and fats.
3. How must each emergency route or exit be marked?
Answer: It must be indicated by suitable signs so it can be identified
- A) It must be indicated by suitable signs so it can be identified (correct answer)
- B) It must be painted with a continuous green line along the floor
- C) It must be lit by a flashing beacon during working hours only
- D) It must be numbered so that a roll call can be taken by exit
Why: Regulation 31(5) requires each emergency route or exit to be indicated by suitable signs, which is why the green running figure signs appear along escape routes.
4. Why does HSG168 say the site fire emergency plan must state who will contact the emergency services?
Answer: So nobody presumes that somebody else has already made the call
- A) So the fire and rescue service can bill the right company afterwards
- B) Because by law a director must make any call to the fire service
- C) So the call can wait until a head count at the assembly point is done
- D) So nobody presumes that somebody else has already made the call (correct answer)
Why: HSG168 paragraph 308 asks who will contact the emergency services and how, and says the arrangements should not result in a presumption that someone else has called them.
5. Why does HSG168 count people wearing personal protective equipment among those especially at risk in a fire?
Answer: It can affect their ability to hear an alarm or warning
- A) Their clothing catches fire more easily than anyone else's
- B) They are not allowed to use the site's escape routes
- C) They must stay behind to make their equipment safe
- D) It can affect their ability to hear an alarm or warning (correct answer)
Why: HSG168 paragraph 43 lists people wearing PPE which may affect their ability to hear any alarm or warning among those especially at risk.
6. Where does HSG168 say petrol-fuelled plant must not be refuelled?
Answer: On a scaffold, in an escape route or in a high-risk area
- A) After the plant has been switched off and allowed to cool
- B) On a scaffold, in an escape route or in a high-risk area (correct answer)
- C) In a designated refuelling area in the open air
- D) In a well-ventilated space away from ignition sources
Why: HSG168 paragraph 109 says refuel only in designated areas in the open air or well-ventilated spaces, once the plant has cooled, and that refuelling must not take place on scaffold, in escape routes or in high-risk areas.
7. Where does HSG168 say gas cylinders must never be stored?
Answer: In unventilated metal boxes or in temporary site accommodation
- A) Upright and secured in a purpose-built cylinder store
- B) In a fenced compound in the open air, well away from occupied buildings
- C) In unventilated metal boxes or in temporary site accommodation (correct answer)
- D) In a ventilated outdoor cage away from sources of ignition
Why: HSG168 paragraph 158 says never store flammable gas, or any gas cylinder, in unventilated metal boxes or other enclosed spaces such as temporary accommodation, as a leak can build up and explode.
8. What does a flame-failure device on a site cabin gas heater do?
Answer: Shuts off the gas supply if the flame goes out
- A) Shuts off the gas supply if the flame goes out (correct answer)
- B) Relights the flame automatically after a gust
- C) Raises the alarm when the cabin gets too warm
- D) Stops the cylinder running empty overnight
Why: HSG168 paragraph 181 says heaters must have flame-failure devices so that the gas supply is shut off if the flame fails, because leaking vapour can build up and explode.
9. Where does HSG168 say fire extinguishers at fire points should be kept?
Answer: On hooks or stands, to keep them off the ground
- A) Locked in the site office until they are needed
- B) In the back of the site manager's van
- C) On hooks or stands, to keep them off the ground (correct answer)
- D) Lying on the floor, so they cannot fall over
Why: HSG168 paragraph 291 says extinguishers should be situated on hooks or stands to keep them off the ground, at identified fire points.
10. A partly built building has rooms that would make a good place for contractors to sleep. What does HSG168 say?
Answer: Sleeping must be avoided within the building during construction
- A) Sleeping must be avoided within the building during construction (correct answer)
- B) Sleeping is allowed if a smoke alarm is fitted in the room
- C) Sleeping is allowed in ground floor rooms
- D) Sleeping is allowed if the site is guarded overnight
Why: HSG168 Appendix 2 paragraph 2 says even if a partially completed building has suitable space, sleeping must be avoided within the building during the construction phase.
What this topic covers in the CSCS test
A fire needs three things to start: a source of ignition, fuel and oxygen. Take away any one of them and there is no fire, which is why almost every control on site is aimed at separating heat from what will burn. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 sets the law on general fire safety for construction sites, and the CDM Regulations 2015 add a duty to prevent risk from fire.
- The fire triangle and how removing one side prevents or stops a fire
- Site ignition sources: hot works, plant, smoking, electrical faults, bonfires and arson
- Hot work permits, clearing combustibles and keeping a fire watch after the work stops
- Classes of fire and matching the right extinguisher to what is burning
- Escape routes, assembly points, raising the alarm and the site fire plan
- Raising the alarm, calling the emergency services and basic first aid until they arrive
Key facts worth memorising
- The fire triangle
- For a fire to start you need a source of ignition, fuel and oxygen, and removing any one of the three prevents or extinguishes it.
- The classes of fire
- Class A is solids such as wood, paper and textiles, Class B is flammable liquids, Class C is gases, Class D is metals and Class F is cooking oils.
- Match the extinguisher to the fuel
- HSE says use water on wood, paper and cloth, dry powder or foam on flammable liquids, and carbon dioxide on electrical fires.
- Extinguisher colour codes
- Extinguishers to the current standard are predominantly red with a colour-coded band or zone: red for water, cream for foam, blue for dry powder and black for carbon dioxide. Read the label, not the body colour.
- The responsible person
- Under the Fire Safety Order a responsible person, usually the main or principal contractor, must carry out and keep up to date the site fire risk assessment.
- Five steps to a fire risk assessment
- Identify the hazards, identify the people at risk, evaluate and act, record and plan and train, then review it as the site changes.
What people get wrong
Tackle the fire first, then raise the alarm.
Raising the alarm comes first, so everyone can get out and the fire service can be called. Only tackle a small fire if you are trained, it is safe to do so and your escape route stays clear behind you.
A water extinguisher is a safe all-rounder.
Water conducts electricity and spreads burning liquid. HSE directs you to carbon dioxide for electrical fires and foam or dry powder for flammable liquids.
A hot work permit is paperwork you sign afterwards.
A permit authorises the job before it starts, and HSE says a permit-to-work system can help manage the risk on larger projects. HSE lists clearing the area of combustible materials, having suitable extinguishers to hand and maintaining a careful watch throughout the work.
You can block an escape route while you work in it.
Escape routes must be kept available and unobstructed. Your tools, materials, leads and waste must not narrow or block a corridor that people would use to get out.
Answering these questions in the test
Fire questions fall into three groups: preventing fire, escaping from it, and dealing with casualties. For prevention, the correct answer usually removes fuel or an ignition source, which is the fire triangle applied in practice, so look for tidying waste, storing gas cylinders properly or controlling hot works. For escape, the right answer nearly always involves raising the alarm and getting out by the nearest clear route, never going back for tools, a vehicle or personal belongings. For extinguishers, match what is burning rather than what is nearest to hand. And for first aid, the safest option wins: check for danger before you approach, and give the emergency services your exact location.
Background reading
Drilling the questions tells you what you are getting wrong. It does not always tell you why. For this topic that is covered in Fire Extinguisher Types. The colour band on each red body, what must never be used on what, and why there is no class E.
Sources
Written from the following. Where a figure could not be verified against one of these, it has been left out rather than approximated. Our sources and methodology explains how we date and re-check them. Spotted something wrong? Report an error and we will fix it.
Topics that come up alongside fire safety & emergency procedures
Ready for the real thing?
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