Fire Exits

I can't quite find a category for this so forgive me for using this one. Can any one advise on the seemingly arbitrary approach to fire safety measures required in buildings of varying heights. I fully understand that taller buildings come with increased risk but the requirements seem to be extreme as one transitions from one height to another. For example, a building of height 17.999m might require 60 min fire resistance but one at 18.01m requires 90.

The company I work for have a magnetic lock system in place but these are not linked with the fire system so when the alarms go off the doors are still locked. Now some doors have a green release function but my problem is if we do have a fire and electrics go too the old mag bolts will still be in position and the exits will be locked. Are they breaking fire safety rules ?

could you please tell me if it i am breaking any legal requirement by having a curtain on a pole over a door thats also a fire exit from a bedroom in a ground floor apartment in a care home?

Hi there, I am looking at fitting some Paxton Paxlock Pro door locks to some doors in our offices (https://www.paxton.co.uk/products.asp?id=011,24&strStage=product_page&strFamily=net2&strGroup=group-05145) to provide a basic access control system in our offices. These locks allow use of the mechanical handle on the secure side at all times. The locks are wireless and disable the handle on the insecure side until a token has been offered and access granted via the software controller. They don't utilise any maglocks or electronic strikes and essentially are self contained using battery power as they access control side is proximi…

We live on the ground floor of a 3 storey purpose built block. All the homeowners have been contacted by the management company and told that they are legally required to replace their own front doors (which on each floor lead off a communal hallway) to a certain fire standard. The cost to be born by each owner. I recently heard that blocks under 4 storeys high are excempt. Or is this the responsibility of the management company?

Hello I have just moved into a first floor flat above a shop,there is one other flat above me and the shop is a fast food outlet. Parking at the rear belongs to the shop and the staff are regularly parking around and sometimes even in front of our exit door which is also our only means of escape in a fire. Should the developer have made a barrier area for escape routes away from the building. This is a brand new development

Apologies for the long windedness of this, Several years ago i bought a 1st floor maisonette that was converted from a 2 story terrace house back in the 80s, i was told the door that would of connected lounge to corridor had been sealed via court order because of a disagreement with the previous owner and the tenant of the flat below mine, this would of been atleast 15 years ago (possibly in 1989). The tenant is now giving the landlord of the ground floor flat hassle over a number of issues (most seem trivial) but one of the issues is that "if there is a fire in the kitchen there would be no fire exit for him" and wants to unseal this door that leads onto my cor…

Hello, Are thumb locks on fire escape doors ok? we have just refurbed a ground floor office building which has two fire exits (both have thumb locks to open) and the regular entry/exit door. The fire escape doors are thumb locks and then just push to open and they open out away from the building. I always thought fire doors had to have push bars or very simple ways of opening? Any advice would be appreciated. thank you.

Morning, in the office I work at we have two fire doors leading to the central staircase (it is a designated fire egress route). There are also two other fire escapes on this floor. Last week, one of the fire doors leading to the central staircase was taken out of action due to a hinge problem. Management have put boards on either side of the broken door stating out of order, and the fix estimate is 30 days. As there are other exits available, is this sufficient? I appreciate any help you can give. Thank you.

Hi This evening, I've been in a small pub to see a band. The bar area has 3 fire exits in a triangle. One exiting into the beer garden and the others via the 2 normal entrances. Tonight, the band were set up in front of the beer garden exit. There were approx 70 people present, which made the bar feel very full. One of the other fire exits was locked with a key, leaving in my view just one exit. I asked for the door to be unlocked. There was some confusion where they thought I asked for it to be opened. I repeated no, just unlocked for safety. They pointed at the door behind the band and said we could go that way in an emergency. We left…

I volunteer for a charity who has recently opened a shop. In the last few weeks, an old commercial fridge has been dumped which we can’t move and is now blocking our fire exit so we are able to squeeze out of it but cannot open it fully. Today a workbench has also been dumped next to our fire exit which we have since moved. I have been on the telephone to the council who said they would come and look at it to see if there is anything they can do. None of the 3 food businesses close by are owning up to it being theirs. What can we do in the meantime as it is a risk if we have a fire?

Some people who own some property next to commercial property we own have put a door into a wall that is the boundary of our property and their wall. The council granted planning permission for this door despite being told there is no right of way there and that it opened out on to private property. Then a few years later they put a fire exit sign on this door and I have been verbally threatened with a court injunction by two police officers if I obstruct this fire door even though I told them it could not be a fire door as we had owned the property for about twenty years at that time and been allowed to park there and obstruct it whenever we liked. The police would not b…

Hi I've been audited and a corrective action has been for me to arrange for weekly inspection of all glass-break bolts on my emergency/fire doors.... Apparently it's a British Standard to do so but the guy couldn't tell me which one..... Seems overkill and surely we'd use a risk-assessment approach on setting schedules: anyone any the wiser please?

Hi, Hope you can advise? We are currently expanding and moving the office around as a result. We currently have 2 means of access on the first floor and in the design it proposes to take this away does this pose a fire safety issue? the only route would then be down a protected stair well. Everything I am reading suggest we would need 2 fire escapes overall which we do have on the ground floor.

An emergency lighting unit was recently fitted in an apartment for which i manage maintenance the unit itself is fitted loosely are there any regulations regarding the secure fitting of such equipment

I believe a 60 min FP emergency stairwell should be kept sterile. However at a 3 storey office there are 3 electric wall heaters. One has stopped working and I have been asked to get it mended. I have said they should be removed completely. But because it's cold they want heaters on. Am I correct in refusing this request?

Hi Folks, I'm after some clarification if possible. At work there are 4 protected Fire Escapes - all of which have Fire Doors and smoke seals on them. The escapes themselves are of brick and block construction and the stairs are preformed concrete, under all four staircases on the ground floor these is a store room or service room. Again these are all fitted with Fire Doors. All the rooms have Fire Detection in them and most have a sprinkler head in there as well. The problem / question..... One of these under stair store rooms has now had a larger store room built on the outside of the store so effectively a room within a room, this new room is not fire r…

Can we padlock our fire door on a secondary fire escape route outside of our normal working hours, our new neighbours are now working longer hours and say that we must not padlock it, this causes serious security issues for us as they could enter our building when we are not there.

We have a joint fire door ( more a window ) connected by magna lock to the fire alarm, the window opens into our property and we are responsible for it's maintenance. Our neighbours use this escape route as a secondary route out of their building across the roof and then enter our building and through our store to exit to the street. We would lock this route after we finish at night ( half an hour after our neighbours ) however we have new neighbours who now work late into the night and say we must leave this door unlocked ( not padlocked ) so they can use the route after we have finished, issue is that if they use this route they will have access to all parts of our busi…

Hello I have recently started working on the internal structure of our new nursery. We are in a new build, single story. We have taken on the show room in the development so they already have fire exits, fire lighting, fire doors etc . We are now creating a new corridor in the existing show home to act as a fire corridor where all the nursery rooms will lead to. We understand each room will need a fire door and fire proof partitioning with fire retardant plaster board etc. But I have a few questions to ask, How many exits we do need from each room? (maximum of 40 children and adults in the room at one time) Each room leads to the fire corridor and each room will …

Good evening, i am after some some advice on a topic I’ve been thrown into but am worried about where we stand. i am openening a restaurant with a capacity of 60: we are lucky enough to have one main entrance and another exit at the back so we have two good fire escapes. This is entirely new n the first floor and due to being a change of use we have to comply as if t was a new build in terms of access. Building control won’t sign us off because we haven’t got access for wheelchair users and our stairs are too small to fit a stairlift. Making stairs wider can’t be done. one self appointed hero who has come and said that we need to loose our mai…

In a converted house of 5 floors with a flat on each floor, must the entrance doors to the flats be fire doors?

Good morning, I work in a school in London and we have been advised that we need to build a unit to store coats etc. for one of our classrooms. We have quite a small classroom where they is no space for pupils to hang their coats and currently they hang on a rail outside the classroom. This hanging rail is on a fire exit route, this route is the only means of escape for this section of the school (3 story, 5 classrooms). We have been informed that the area must remain sterile to prevent any spread of fire and have been advised to build a fire resistant unit to store these items in. I have tried many google searches to no avail and wonder does anyone have any advi…

I'm furnishing an old barn which has been converted into a guest house. The 3 downstairs bedrooms each have a clear glass Fire Exit door leading to the outside. Are there any rules regarding the curtains or blinds that can cover this door? Thanks!

Hi. I am aware that an internal office door can be secured by a cylinder mortice deadlock with a thumb turn on the office side. Can you point me to the relevant passage in Building Regulations please. The office is small with only the one door to a corridor. Thanking you AndrewMT