Evacuation Plans

I'm wondering if it would be safe to introduce a lock to an internal door which would serve as one route of exit in an emergency? Locking this door would essentially turn the space (currently being used as an office) into a dead end, in doing so the only way of exiting the room (& building) in an emergency would be out of the door you came in, turning right, and then going through a laundry room to a set of final exit doors. The lock would would be operated from the other side of the care office, so those in the room in question wouldn't be able to open the door at all. I think the door being used as it currently is as the route of escape provides the shorte…

On a Disabled Refuge System is their a standard where the Call point is located.? I understand the unit should be fitted at 1200mm from floor level and the units are installed in the Refuge area of the stairwell but is there a prefence / Standard of where call points are to be installed.

Non-domestic use. On a first floor, I have a 5 meter long corridor. At each end is a fire door leading to an 800 square foot office . In the middle of the corridor is a fire door leading towards the stairs. Is it acceptable for the office doors at each end to open inwards into the office and not outwards onto the corridor?

If a block of flats has a secondary means of escape - all flats have a rear exit into the garden (and an exit to the street from there)- do the flat front doors need to be fire doors? Nobody will need to pass them, if they use the rear exits. The block in question has an evacuation procedure, with a Grade A fire alarm system. Thanks

Hi, I heard a FR assessor quoting that once you had completed your travel distance to a relative place of safety. eg. (45m to a protected corridor ,stairwell ,) then the 45 m rule began again to the final exit. I have never heard of this but thought surely it would be an assessment of what’s reasonable based on the fire protection of the route, occupancy, risk etc. Happy to be corrected. Still very much in the learning phase , which I assume never ends. Your comments appreciated. Cheers

I am trying to find out if we can have a glass wall and door between our hallway and box room (1) or if we need a fire door. The box room is fairly big (5x5m) but has low ceiling height (185cm) and no windows. This box room leads to another box room (2), which is a bit smaller but also has no windows and a low ceiling height. In this room there is currently a passive vent, to which we will likely connect a PIV unit to increase ventilation. But so these boxrooms are not classified as a habitable space. We use them recreationally and for storage. Since there is no natural light, we thought it would be nice to have a glass door and a small section of glass wall between the f…

Hello, we have recently installed a new main entrance door to a B&B. It is accessible by keypad (enter 4digit code) and also manually via key. To exit, there is a 'Press to Exit' button, which opens the door and also you can turn the knob to open manually. On rare occasions, some guests enter/exit and carelessly leave the door open (it is not automatically self closing). Does my main entrance door need to be self closing by law? Currently, on check in I explain it to them and also text them a reminder about shutting the door.

Hi, the company I work for have multiple units in close proximity. Mix of office units and warehouse units. Alarming systems do not link all units. Wondering what your view is on having either a “all out” policy, or “affected unit only”policy. If you have Marshall’s sweeping the affected unit, and then notifying the others, should you have to evacuate every other building? I appreciate it certain buildings hold specific risks that could impact units in close proximity then they need to be evacuated. That’s not really the case in this instance. Thanks Andy

Hi there, I’m a firefighter embarking on study in fire safety but I have come across a problem beyond my skill set and was hoping someone can help! My father-in-law currently lives in a two storey one bedroom detached property which is grade II listed. The bedroom is on the second floor and the windows do not open enough to be used as an escape route. The stairs are open to, and discharge into, the living room therefore a fire in the living room would affect egress from the bedroom. Could anyone tell me the best way to improve this given the listed nature of the building. Also, he is looking to move out in the future and rent the building out, what would then be the …

HI We are looking to go back into our office but working with a hybrid model so staff can continue to work from home or come into the office all week or how many days they like. My question is how can we ensure that there is always a fire marshal or responsible person in the office if the fire alarms go off? How can we ensure we are covered safety wise for our staff? Is there anyone else that is looking at a hybrid office and what are they doing around H&S and fire risks?

If the front door of a small block of flats (converted house) has two thumb-turn locks, as in the picture, is that a problem?

I wonder if anyone can assist. I live on the ground floor of a block of flats, the front door is not inside it leads to the outside space and communal landscaping. The back of the property is a terrace and is separated by planters to the neighbours terrace and has been this way since it was built 15+ years ago. We are now being told that building management want to remove these planters to make it an emergency exit route. I own the full terrace as per my red line plan, it is not a communal space. Can anyone tell me if this is even legal? They are saying a risk assessment has now highlighted the issue but haven't provided any copies of it. Thank you

As a landlord do we have to carry out fire drills in general needs blocks of flats?

What is the general consensus on a Muster Point / RVP apposed to the scatter approach ??

what are the legal requirements for a refuge point. specifically do they need communication systems

Evening all, i have been asked to carry out fire drills at a number of premises which is a new avenue for me. Is there a guide anywhere someone can point me in the direction of that outlines the process from cradle to grave....i.e Meet at 10am with Fire Wardens to discuss the evacuation plan, 10.30am Run Drill, 10.45 debrief with Wardens / RP?...................and an appropriate report that I can complete afterwards for the client for feedback?

My wife and I live in a 48 flat Retirement Block managed by (removed). They insist that in the event of a Fire Alarm sounding that we stick to the Stay Put policy. I have many concerns regarding this which I can set out in writing. Could you please advise me who I can set out my many concerns,for proper objective evaluation. Many Thanks from John

Hi all, I've been grabbling with what to me is a tricky topic: the evacuation of people in wheelchair/ serious mobility disability from their domestic property, especially if they don't live on the ground floor. Plus some of them might live alone and not have anybody to help them out in case of a fire. I've searched the internet for an answer has to what evacuation plan should be advised to them. However, information on the topic have been sparse. Of course, those people should have fire warning detection and warning system at their home (e.g. smoke detectors, heat detectors...etc), but what if the fire happen at their home? What is the recommendation? Would th…

Hi, I'm the H&S officer for a small retailer and recently tested out our fire evacuation procedure. As we have an adjoining business and residential flats above part of this is to contact them to let them know we have a fire. The adjoining business is easy, the reception area is right next to our fire evacuation point so we can just tell the receptionist in person and they can start their process. The plan for the residential flats was to contact their help-desk and have them attempt to contact the residents, however once we put this to the test we found two major faults. It took 20 minutes for someone to answer, not sure if thats because of Covid…

I would welcome your thoughts on the following scenario I've recently been asked to look at an issue in a care home whereby a risk has been identified concerning residents with dementia being able to traverse the staircases (which serve as primary access and egress for staff and evacuation). At each level the 2nr stair and lift lobbies connect either side of the care home and is required as a throughfare to allow residents to access facilities etc at either sides. Due to the structural layout it is not feasible to enclose the stairs further with say fire doors directly at the head and feet. The simplest solution would be similar to a child gate at the head and the fo…

My name is Fred Clarke and I am a trustee for a charity based in Leicester. The buildings in our area are of Georgian/ Victorian vintage and many are now student accommodation (flats). Three of these buildings are on one road but their gardens back onto our car park which gives way onto yet another road. Those student flats have gates from their gardens into our car park and for a very long time the students have used their back gates to exit their accommodation and walk through our car park whenever they please. We have never before considered this as a particular problem but we have a long-standing problem with rough sleepers, dirty used syringes, threats …

Hello all. A 5 storey purpose built block of flats has a communal alarm system, it also has detection in each flat all linked in to the alarm system. The residents have been advised and the fire action notice says it is a stay put policy unless it’s your flat on fire. Is this contradictory? Is the best solution to either change the policy to evac or remove linked detectors from flats and have independent ones. There is only one stairwell which would easily clog up with people in an incident. Any advice gratefully received. Many thanks.

Hi there, I own a flat in a purpose-build block of flats with ACM cladding on some but not all of the facade. Remediation is still in the planning stages and we have been advised to change from stay put to a simultaneous evacuation policy. The building has a communal fire alarm system in common parts of the building. Separately, each flat is fitted with a smoke and heat detector (not connected to the communal fire alarm system). We have received somewhat conflicting recommendations on the required interim safety measure. The recent fire risk assessment recommends extending the communal fire alarms system by fitting additional detectors …

Hi all I'm the H&S Coordinator at a manufacturing facility. We have an open mezzanine level within the plant and currently the distance from the furthest point on the mez to the nearest fire escape is a little too long. There is currently only one stairwell connecting the mez to the ground floor. To combat this I want to put in another means of egress from the mez level to shorten the distances involved. Unfortunately space is limited so ideally I'd like to put a ladder there. I'm just trying to get an answer to the question 'does a ladder count as part of the route toward the fire escape from a regulatory pov? In other words is it a suitable egress in those…

I am the building manager of a very large office building in central London providing 24/7 critical national services. The occupancy of the building is usual around 5,000 persons. Due to a COVID-19 strategy, the workforce in the building has reduced to around 380 who are spread across 78,000m2 of floor space. We usually maintain 200 Fire Wardens, but with such a reduction in staff numbers, the vast majority of them are at home and unable to carry out their core functions in an emergency - i.e. sweep an area of the building during an evacuation. Therefore we are unable to account for our staff for the foreseeable future We have considered our options w…