Fire Exits

Ive just taken over as the govener for H&S at my kids playschool. its a small single story building comprising of 3 linked rooms with a fire exit at either end. Both fire exits are locked the an old style mortise lock (the large key type) which is hung up on a nail on the back of the door in question. Also there is a security chain at high level fitted to the door to stop any escaping kids (The kind fitted to flats) is this acceptable? or should it have a single means of exit such as a strike bar? however the door also opens inwards.

Hi and Thanks for taking the time to answer my enquiry. I work in a school and I`m being asked to frosted the glass out on a final fire exit door. It is on a special needs unit and there is a fear of flight from some of the children as they can see the gate in which they come through when they arrive to school. Hope you can help thanks in advance Dave M

Morning, hope you can help with a query. A fire risk assessment has highlighted an issue with a teaching lab in our college. The lab accomodates up to 100 students The lab has 2 double exit doors which lead to a lobby area The max travel distance from the lab to the doors leading to the protected stairwell is 35m Area is referred to as normal risk Would you consider the following statement from the FRA to be correct? The main lab on the first floor has the capacity to hold up to 100 occupants. While it has two entrance doors these both lead to the same lobby and therefore cannot be considered alternative exits. Approved Document Part…

Hi all, just looking for some input please. I've just started working for a company within a 3 story building. Each floor has a large open planned office with a stairwell at either end of room - one is the main stairwell and the other stairwell is used in the event of a fire. The doors to the stairwell used in the even of a fire are fire doors and are suitably labelled. However, on the other side of the doors there are no handles, rendering re-entry to the office impossible were you to be in the stairwell. There is, of course, an eventual fire exit at the foot of the stairwell but what if there was a fire blocking it? You would be trapped in the stairwell as yo…

We share a courtyard with a company behind us and they are looking to build a fence to mask our air conditioning units. Our fire escape opens into this courtyard and they want to include a hinged gate to allow us access into the courtyard. My opinion is that this is illegal and that we should have immediate access into this area and not have to open an adjacency gate as a means of escape Am I right ? Ladbros

Would you please advise on positioning of Fire Exit Sign please. We have the usual sign over door but are considering putting it a little higher over the door, leaving space to see through the door at the top via a half-moon glass window above the door. Would this be acceptable please?

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…