Fire Safety Compliance for a Wetherill Park Industrial Unit (2164)
If you have searched a specific Wetherill Park street address like 37 Bentley St, you are most likely doing one of three things: checking who looks after fire safety at that site, working out what a unit in that estate needs before you move in or lease it out, or chasing the paperwork a council, insurer or head tenant has asked for. For a typical Wetherill Park industrial unit in Fairfield City Council's area, that paperwork usually comes down to four things: emergency evacuation diagrams, a fire block plan at the booster, a written emergency plan, and the Annual Fire Safety Statement (AFSS) lodged each year.
Wetherill Park is almost all warehouse, factory and trade-supply tenancies, often several units under one strata plan or one owner. That matters, because who is responsible for what is split between the building owner and each tenant, and that split is where most of the confusion starts.
Who is responsible: owner or tenant?
The building owner (or the owners corporation for a strata industrial complex) is responsible for the essential fire safety measures listed on the Fire Safety Schedule and for lodging the AFSS with council and Fire and Rescue NSW each year. That covers hydrants, boosters, sprinklers, alarms, exit and emergency lighting, fire doors and the like.
The tenant, as the person conducting a business or undertaking, has a separate duty under clause 43 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017 (NSW) to have an emergency plan for their workers and visitors, and to keep it current. Your landlord's AFSS does not satisfy that. Neither does a lease clause.
In practice, in a multi-unit estate:
- The owner or strata manager arranges the AFSS, the block plan at the booster and the base-building diagrams in common corridors.
- Each tenant arranges evacuation diagrams for their own tenancy, their emergency plan and procedures, portable extinguishers where their activity requires them, and their annual evacuation exercise.
If you are not sure which side of the line you sit on, check the lease schedule and ask the managing agent for a copy of the current Fire Safety Schedule for the building. The schedule is the list everything else hangs off.
The four documents, side by side
| Document | What it is for | Standard or rule | Where it lives | How often |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evacuation diagram | Shows occupants where they are, the exits, equipment and the assembly area | AS 3745-2010 | Inside the tenancy at decision points, at the height and orientation people read them | Reviewed on any layout change, validated at least every 5 years |
| Fire block plan | Shows attending firefighters the hydrant, sprinkler or tactical layout of the site | AS 2419.1 (hydrant), AS 2118.1 (sprinkler) | At the booster assembly or fire control room | When the system or site layout changes |
| Emergency plan and procedures | Written response for fire, medical, bomb threat, chemical spill and so on, plus warden roles | WHS Regulation 43, informed by AS 3745 | With the business, accessible to workers, often summarised on a flip chart | Reviewed at least annually and after any change |
| Annual Fire Safety Statement | Owner's certificate that each listed measure has been assessed and works | EP&A (Development Certification and Fire Safety) Regulation 2021 | Lodged with council and FRNSW, copy displayed in the building | Every 12 months |
Evacuation diagrams for a warehouse tenancy
A warehouse diagram is not just a floor plan with a red arrow on it. AS 3745-2010 sets out what has to be on it: the "YOU ARE HERE" point, the green directional arrow for the egress path, all exits, hose reels, extinguishers and their type, the assembly area, and the date of validation. It also has to be oriented the way the reader is facing when they stand in front of it, which is the single most common thing people get wrong when they print their own.
Racking changes this. If you have re-racked, added a mezzanine, blocked an old roller door or moved the office pod, your old diagrams are out of date even if the five years is not up. For a Wetherill Park unit that has changed tenants, assume the diagrams on the wall belong to the previous occupier's layout until you have checked them. Emergency evacuation diagrams can be produced from your existing plans remotely, or measured up on site in Sydney where no usable plan exists.
Block plans at the booster
If your estate has a hydrant booster out the front, there should be a legible block plan at it. Fire crews arriving at a Bentley Street address at 2am are reading that plan in the dark to work out isolation valves, hydrant locations, tank and pump positions and building numbering. Faded, hand-drawn or missing block plans get picked up at AFSS time and at brigade inspections. Fire block plans are drawn to suit hydrant, sprinkler or tactical requirements and mounted in a UV-stable finish for outdoor booster locations.
The annual fire safety statement
The AFSS is the owner's obligation and has to be lodged within 12 months of the last one. Every measure on the Fire Safety Schedule has to be inspected and assessed by a competent fire safety practitioner, and for critical measures that has to be an accredited practitioner. Late lodgement is what triggers council letters and penalty notices, and a stale AFSS will show up in any due diligence on the property.
The practical order is: get the schedule, get each measure assessed and any defects rectified, then the statement is issued and lodged. If you are the owner of a unit or the whole building and are behind, start with the schedule rather than the statement. See annual fire safety statements for how the assessment and lodgement sequence works in NSW.
Putting it together for a new tenancy
A sensible order for a business fitting out a unit in 2164:
- Get the current Fire Safety Schedule and last AFSS from the agent.
- Confirm the as-built layout, including racking, mezzanines and any new partitions.
- Have evacuation diagrams drawn to the actual layout and installed where people can read them.
- Write the emergency plan and appoint and train wardens.
- Check extinguisher types and coverage against what you actually store and do (forklift battery charging, flammable liquids, spray booths and dust all change the answer).
- Run the first evacuation exercise and record it.
A one page emergency procedure flip chart next to the phone or in the lunchroom is what people will actually use during an incident. The full plan is the document an inspector wants to see.
FAQ
My unit is only 300 square metres and we have four staff. Do we still need diagrams?
There is no floor area cut-off that removes the WHS duty to have an emergency plan and to make sure workers know how to get out. AS 3745 allows the level of detail to suit the facility, so a small single-tenancy unit may need far fewer diagrams than a multi-level building, but "none at all" is rarely defensible once you have staff, visitors and stock in the building.
The landlord says the building is covered. Is that enough for us?
The AFSS covers the building's fire safety measures. It says nothing about your procedures, your wardens, your training or your layout. Those remain yours as the occupier.
Can diagrams and block plans be done without someone attending the site?
Yes, where useable plans exist. Diagrams and block plans are regularly produced from architectural or hydraulic drawings anywhere in Australia, with the customer confirming equipment locations. On-site measure-ups are available in Sydney, including the Wetherill Park and Smithfield industrial area, when drawings are missing or no longer match the building.