Fire Risk Assessments

Hello there I am helping with a licensed event feasibility study and am trying to calculate the safe capacity of the venue. This will help determine if the event is financially viable. The room proposed is approx. 700sqm and located on the lower ground floor of a former high street shop. The lower ground floor has one 1900mm final exit door and one 750mm final exit door, both lead directly outside; both doors are relatively close to each other along the same side of the room There are two more 750mm exits which lead upstairs, where there is one 1900mm and one 750mm final exit doors, both again lead directly outside. I am veering towards a safe capac…

Has anyone come across a situation whereby they have encountered unenclosed electrical meters and their associated electrical wiring in the common stairway enclosures serving domestic dwelling flats? If so would they consider enclosing such installations and why? The stairway enclosures in which the installations are located have no form of ventilation to fresh air.

Is there any reference in the FSO that you educated people could point me towards that - Pacifically says that separate blocks/properties require separate FRAs. I’ve encountered a housing association that will ask for one FRA for two separate addressable blocks which are semi detached but have their own entrances and exits with their own addresses.

Hi, Apologies if this isn't posted in the correct place. I am currently selling my flat. It is a one bedroom ground floor in an old converted building with it's own entrance. My buyers solicitor is telling my solicitor I need to agree to install "an FD30S and provided with intumescent strips, cold smoke seals and a self-closing device, mounted on three fire rated BS 1935 hinges". My query is that my flat door does not connect to any common areas. It goes directly to the outside on the ground floor. There are no other flat entrance doors near mine. Is it a legal requirement to have my door changed before I can sell the property or not? I don't really want to spe…

Hi- I appear to have come across a classic bit of poor interdepartmental referencing and archiving. Approved Document B Volume 2 states: "Prisons provided under section 33 of the Prisons Act 1952 0.15 Prisons are exempted from the functional requirements of Parts B1 to B5 of the Building Regulations under section 33 of the Prisons Act 1952. It is usual that prisons should comply with the fire safety requirements of the Building Regulations, except where the requirements are incompatible with safe custody, good order or security. HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) provides guidance documents on fire precautions in prisons, which take account of the public sa…

Hi Please can we ask someone for their advice... We have a fire service access control mechanism (drop-key) fitted to the gate of a school we look after. Does anyone know how often they should be tested by the school and serviced by an engineer? Also, does anyone know the correct British Standard for these devices (we were told it was BS7273-4)?

First of all, thank you in advance for your responses. I would greatly appreciate your expert suggestions or experiences on this matter. We are renovating the ground floor of our 1930s three-story house. The house already has a loft conversion, which we are not altering. The council is objecting to our proposal and is requiring us to add a wall that we had removed to create an open-plan design—this was a key aspect of our renovation. To be specific, we have an open-plan kitchen/living room that is connected to the rest of the house via the stairs. We plan to install a sprinkler system throughout the ground floor, fire-rated (FD30) doors for all bedrooms, an…

Current legislation requires freeholders or their appointed managers to carry out fire safety audits of blocks of flats. These audits commonly find that front doors to flats are not compliant with current Building Regulations. However, building regulations only apply to new buildings. Is there any legislation which confirms a duty upon leaseholders to upgrade the front doors of the flats, if they do not meet current standards?

Hi, I own the freehold to a 3 storey house converted into 3 flats. The lower flat has a separate entrance. The upper 2 flats share a front door and hallway but no shared stairwell - does this property require a Fire Risk Assessment? Thanks

Hello, I hope someone can assist. Is there a definitive answer of how many FRA's are required for a building comprising: Building is owned by one person. Large RENTAL retail unit on the ground floor with independent escape routes. Rented out by the building owner. 10 flats on the upper floors with independent escape routes. Rented out by the building owner. Is it three FRA's? One for the flats communal areas One for the commercial One for the entire building Or is it two? One for the flats communal areas One for the commercial Or is it something else?? Thanks for reading this far!

What’s everyone’s thoughts? 4 storey block of flats, one escape stairs, all flat entrance doors open onto an external open walkway, all doors and windows are uVPC, walkway width is 1.2 meters should all doors be FD 30 fire doors and glazing FR30?

We have recently had a FRA on a single staircase over 11m (but below18m) block of flats. We are told the sounders need to be removed for a 'stay put' strategy but smoke detectors retained. Q : do we need to replace domestic twin & earth cabling to these detectors with fire proof/resistant wiring ? Q : is there a legal requirement for an AOV or can we convert to a MOV ? Q : is there a legal requirement for signage in this single staircase, single exit, less than 9m run scenario ? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Hello a recent fire risk assessment requires fire seals around individual apartment exit doors and 3 hinges,in a purpose built block of apartments 3 and 4 storey high,do the seals need to be both smoke and intumescent or just intumescent seals,and is it the managing agent or the apartment owner liable for the cost of fitting Also the electricity meter boxes are situated in fibre glass fronted boxes on the landings on escape routes,i can understand these being replaced with fire proof ones as meters do seem to catch fire quite often, in fact a neighbour was re-homed after her meter caught fire in her old house. Again who is responsible for the replacement cost…

Hello, We purchased our flat 6 years ago. It’s a converted Victorian house split into only 2 flats. There is a main front door and then a fire door to each flat. (The hallway where the front door leads with both flat doors is about 1.5m long with nothing in it at all.) When we purchased the flat (first time buyers), a fire risk assessment was not mentioned by our solicitors. However, we are now selling it and the buyers solicitors have asked for one. Do we need to pay to have this done? Or can we fill in a template ourselves for example? The only common area is this tiny hallway. Our flat has its own private rear door with fire escape gate in the fence. …

Hi All, Just looking for some clarification if possible please.... It is an existing building - 3 floor levels. Ground is commercial - 1st and 2nd floor levels are residential flats. Using guidance of LACoRS, do we use the examples of a 3-storey building or a 2-storey building as only two floors are residential?? Sorry - I know this is probably a really stupid question, but there is quite a difference in terms of what is required between 2 and 3 storey buildings. Any help/guidance much appreciated.

I live in a 1920s house converted in 1954 into four flats only two of which share a communal staircase/fire exit. The fire assessment seems to suggest that the glass blocks that form the entrance wall of my flat cannot be proved to be fire resistant and so might have to be replaced. The blocks are hollow glass 4" deep and fire resistance was specified in the plans of 1954. The fire assessment report does suggest risk must be balanced against costs in a case like this - we will have interlinked smoke alarms and an emergency exit .HOWEVER we have to provide proof that these were fire resistant and tested, but of course there was no actual fire rating then! How can we do tha…

We have a Victorian conversion - entrance and ground floor level leading to a ground floor flat which also has a lower ground level. From the ground floor common landing, there is a set of stairs leading to a first floor landing that has entrances for the first floor and top floor flat. We are having some confusion about whether this should be a two storey or a three/four storey for LACORS. The common areas are only the ground floor and first floor landing.

Could do with some advise please, about to be made redundant at the end of the year, I do have basic knowledge of building work and fire doors. Which is the best course to do that is recognised by employers for fire door assessments. Thanks

Hello, I live in a flat in a converted property. It has 6 floors in total, with one of them being a basement. There is one flat on each floor with the third floor flat having 2 floors. So five flats in total. Between the front door and the ground floor flat there is a very ornate lobby / vestibule door. Not in anyway fire rated. I cant attach a photo as it wont upload. Does this door need to be a fire door? There is nothing of risk in between the front door and lobby door like an electrical intake its completely empty.

We occupy (lease) a small ground floor office which is part of a block containing 4 flats. The building consists of ground & 1st floor. We have our own entrance which is separate from the communal entrance to the flats. We are being asked by the local FRS to provide a Fire Risk Assessment. The landlord leasing us the office space doesn't appear to have one. I dont know who the freeholder is for the entire building. Conducting an FRA for our small office space (4 people) would be quite straightforward but I dont want to be drawn into the more intricate issue of the adequacy of fire separation between our office space & the flats above. Who is responsible for this ?…

We are just developing an old bank building, about 100 square meters per floor. The Basement and Ground Floor will be for commercial use as one unit, and that unit is correctly fire-separated from the Domestic Part according to current regs. The Domestic Part is accessed through a separate front door, with a short corridor to the steps up. Each of the First and Second Floors will consist of a single two-bedroom flat with a hallway and all rooms lead direct off that hallway. Our intention that each of those two flats will have a smoke alarm in the hallway, with a heat alarm in the kitchen and these would be mains-powered and interlinked just with the other a…

I purchased and installed a nightlatch on the door of a flat. On the website said it was 30 min fire rated. Looking at information on the web it seems that no nightlatch is fire rated and it has no CE mark. I was wondering what I can do so the door is compliant with the fire regs. I have seen intumescent kits for a nightlatches. Would this mean the door is now okay? Is there any alternative lock I could fit using the existing hole? I don't want to change the door.

When undertaking a fire risk assessment would you recommend fire stopping (at all floor levels in a multi store residential building) within the service risers even if the service riser itself was constructed to provide 60 minutes protection. I know this sounds like a belt and braces approach but I hear this often from fire officers in that what they want to see, although I appreciate they can sometimes be incorrect in their approach.

Can anyone tell me the correct guidance to be used for carrying out a fire risk assessment in a childrens home; its in a converted house of 3 floors housing 4 children; im unsure weather to use specialized housing, residential homes, maybe HTM88 or something else....any advice will be greatly recieved?!

Hi I am living in a rental bungalow 12 month tenure. I am concerned the garage which is joined to side of the building and extends beyond the rear elevation of the building has been sectioned internally into a rear utility room with an external door. A Washing Machine and tumble dryer have been fitted with services through the batton and plasterboard only on the utility side. The garage has a CU for the bungalow on the bungalow wall. There is an electric roller door on the front of the garage. There is a small metal non fire trapdoor through the deviding ( installed in 2020 and signed) wall to get through in the event of the garage door bei…