Fire Risk Assessments

Hi, could anyone tell me when the Building Regulation's first made the following a requirement in a sheltered housing scheme / purpose built block of flats please. "Rooms containing refuse chutes, or provided for the storage of refuse, should be approached either directly from the open air or by way of a protected lobby provided with not less than 0.2 m2 of permanent ventilation."

Can anyone offer advice regarding appropriate travel distances in a basement corridor? This is a sheltered housing block to which the specialised housing guide applies. The basement has a 77 metre long L shaped corridor, off of which are storage and plant rooms. It is locked and accessible only by the manager and contractors. Normal entrance is from one of two staircases serving the building. At the far end of the service corridor is an escape hatch leading to a well with a Jacobs ladder to street level, which I believe is no longer suitable as a final exit. There is currently no cross corridor separation but AFD is present and there is no sleeping risk. If the escap…

Hi All, Just had an enquiry from a supported Living home about an action on their recent FRA. The action required heat detection to be fitted in the ground floor wet room to protect the electric hoist and to fit a FD30s Fire door to the room as well. In my opinion, this seems unnecessary as there are no combustible items within the room, the appliance is PAT tested and the electrical installation is within its test date. With the addition of a FD30s on the wet room complete with automatic closer, I feel this would impede access and egress and would then require a hold open device, otherwise the dreaded wedges would appear! I would like your thoughts on this plea…

I stayed in a large chain hotel this week which unfortunately had a power cut from mid evening and did not come back on. I noticed that there was no emergency lighting in the corridors and none functioning on stairways. Our room was pitch black too. In the morning I noticed they had propped up torches in the corner of the corridors and knocked on before bedtime to offer a candle. Can anyone tell me whether it is a legal requirement as giving candles to rooms and then no lighting to be able to escape is an accident waiting to happen. Many thanks

I have received a fire risk assessment report. The report recommends installation of a Grade D LD2 automatic fire detection system, in accordance with BS 5839-6:2019, to include smoke detectors and sounders within all common escape routes, and heat detectors and sounders within the flat entrance hallways. The building is Victorian conversion and we are all owner occupiers (2 ground floor flats and 2 flats on first floor). Hallway is small and only one set of stairs from from front door to first floor landing. We all have LFB installed alarms in our respective flats. We want to install necessary alarms in hallway as recommended in report but using the simpl…

I am currently scoping the refurbishment of a large dental practice, I am wondering if a patient undergoing an unconscious procedure would be considered a sleeping risk, because if not I can remove the fire rating from most of the treatment room doors

I am opening a sandwich takeaway in Leeds, no gas in premises. What do I need legally? Many thanks

What are your views on producing separate FRA’s for individual cluster flats in the same building? One FRA for the whole building? Or separate ones for the cluster flats? I have had differing requests from different clients on this. Thanks

Hi All, I have a question I hope you can help me with. Is there an alternative solution to Georgian Wired Glass in fire door vision panels? I have an enquiry from a care facility that has a tenant who constantly smashes the vision panels in the cross corridor fire doors. Has anyone else had this issue? If so, how did you achieve maintaining compliance? Obviously blocking them up is a non starter as you still need to see through the doors. Any guidance would be appreciated!

In 2019 I had a professional fire risk assessment carried out for my Guest House by an ex fire officer. At the time he said we should decommission the fire escape (as its unsafe) provided we upgraded the ceilings in the basement to 2 hours compartmentation, updated the basement doors to half hour fire doors and carried out additional staff training as this would reduce the risk and extend the travel distance from 18 meters. 2 weeks later the local authority fire officer visited us and said we should carry out the work noted in the fire risk assessment which we did. About 2 weeks ago we had a visit from a different fire officer to carry out an audit of the fire risk a…

Is it possible to put a fridge in a cupboard under the stairs?

Hi all, Long time viewer of these forums, but this is my first post. I have a question on doors opening onto corridors in what is essentially a mixed usage office/educational building. The rooms onto the corridors are within a building containing a mix of office admin usage with some other rooms being used for teaching/delivering training input and lectures. My question would these doors require to have intumescent strips and smoke seals fitted along with self closers? The building dates from the late 1960's and the existing doors are what appear to be simply nominal doors rather than fire doors. However some of the doors in question have self closers on them a…

I have been asked to fit new fire rated hinges to a fire door, the original hinges have 4 screw holes, the new ones supplied have 5 screw holes but do not align with the old screw holes, would this defeat the fire rating of the door or do the old holes need to be plugged before new hinges are fitted

I have a plan in for a 90 seater ground floor restaurant with an enclosed kitchen with fairly large openings such that a fire would be obvious to patrons. Two MOE one at the opposite end to the kitchen and one which is accessed by passing by one of the openings. BC have rejected plan on the basis of the route passing the opening. TD is well within limits. On the principle that a fire will be in one place only, I see no issue. Would appreciate comments.

Hi, I sure if in right place, let me know if need to move to another forum. Just qualified as a Surveyor and noticed something odd with own 4 bed New Build House. 1. Windows in bedrooms are all too high up to be egress windows. Not 1 window upstairs complies, builder agrees. 2.Bedrooms have intumescent strips on frames (3 sides) 3. Building claim it complies as stairs and landing are a protected stairway. 4.stairs lead straight down to small hall and front door. 5. Between stairs and door is Kitchen diner door (glassed), (left) and Sitting room right 6. Also on right between stairs and door is Electric consumer uni…

I live in a block of flats built in 1984, the front was retained from an 1890 commercial building but the rest of the flats were purpose built with solid concrete floors, smoke vents at the top of the communal stairs and fire doors off the stairs. The flats are over 4 floors including the basment flats. A fire assessment has been carried out each year professionally and commissioned by the management company which consists of 5 of the residents, no fire safety issues have been raised in these assessments. More recently the local city council environment health have visited and said that because the building does not adhere to 1991 building regulations it must have smoke a…

Are there any regulations regarding the termination point of a twin walled hetas certified flue and the distance to tree branches which are subject to TPO .. is there a minimum distance which is regulated ? many thanks

Hi, In relation to protected routes. Building Description - Small Office Building, 64m2 Footprint, 2 Stories, 1 means of escape from first floor, Travel Distance 18m, automatic detection throughout. The single escape stairwell is open and leads onto an unprotected corridor. (I.e no fire doors). The rooms that lead onto this corridor include a toilet and a storage room. Question 1. Does this route require protection FD30s? or can the automatic detection mitigate the travel distances? Is it wise just to note that doors should just be closed and well fitting. Question 2. If so, in any circumstance does a single direction of travel in excess o…

I am conducting a fire risk assessment, and have a set of 1st floor offices, two exit stairwells, one at the end which is protected, and the other is part way down, leaving two offices and a tiny office with only one escape route which is only about 8 meters to the top of the stairs. There is a door a few meters back from the stairs, but not fire resisting. None of the doors onto the corridor are fire resisting, but the section with two escapes has fire doors at each end before each set of stairs. I'm thinking that the dead end section could be satisfied with the installation of automatic detection to the corridor, stairwell and exit lobby downstairs, consider…

Help as for the love of looking i cant find and answer to this?! A pub has a LG bar area with 5 exits, three are close to one another and have to be discounted, the remaining two lead to a single protected stairwell, each door has the capacity for 100 as opens outwards and are 800mm each. The shared escape stairwell is 830mm and am concious of bottlenecking as in theory the doors combined allow a total of 200 people, do i use the calculation of just 100 people on the same grounds as a door width capacity or is there an alternative calculation? Any help greatly appreciated.

I read that the building regulations stipulate that there must be 400mm from the door or swing of the door to the bottom of the stairs, does this apply to pocket doors as well?

Can anybody advise on the separation distances between LPG tanks and flammables please? At work we have a LPG bulk Storage compound with chain link boundary fence. The site manager wants to mask this off with a hit and miss wood fence (see example below) next to the chain-link boundary fence which is 1.5m from tanks - they are six in two rows of three. I'm thinking the potential fire loading of that type of fence could give risk to the tanks and the gap should be bigger than 1.5M. I'm aware there is a code of practice doc but am reluctant to purchase at £90 if I can avoid it for what I'm hoping is a simple one. Thank you in advance!

Hello, I'm in the process of buying a flat in a new building and the developers have refused to issue a Fire Risk Assessment. They say they will issue one after completion happens. I'm a bit tipped off about their refusal and I'd like to understand what are the potential risk associated with having the FRA after completion. Does this mean that if the building does not comply with current fire legislation the then owners will have to pay for the remedial work? Why would the developer refuse to issue a FRA prior to completion if this is a legal requirement? Thanks for your assistance and regards Elizabeth

Hello, I am a lessee in a block of 12 flats. The management company have written to me saying that I am responsible for improvements to my flat door; i.e., smoke seal, replacement of door hinges, adjustment or replacement of the door closure. That I have a duty of care to my fellow lessees. They are saying that it is my responsibility to carry out the necessary works. They also want me to provide them with the relevant fire certificate. Is this correct what they are saying? What am I paying the management fee? I would be very grateful if somebody could clarify my situation? Regards Ian Vickers

We are looking to install a recirculating extractor fan in the café of our office premises and I wondered if there were any additional fire safety measures we need to implement in order to have this installed? We have had a recent Fire Risk Assessment carried out and the Café is compliant in all areas so wanted to enquire what impact this would have.