Fire Exits

Hi. I can't seem to find this anywhere, but who would should be responsible for unlocking the doors in the morning of work. They need to be locked when the building is empty and unlocked when people are there. but there are a range of start times!! Where can I find in writing who is responsible for making sure theses are open. Thanks Dave

Hi , I wonder if you are able to help me please with a bit of advice My company has just installed a "contractors cabin on site at a large company in the N East this cabin is a standard shipping container that has been converted into an office space with lighting and heating etc My only concern is that it has only one entry and exit door, so in the case of an emergency, if the one exit is blocked, there is no other form of escape there is a window but its not an easy escape route in normal cases there shuld only be one person in the cabin, but there is a small meeting area also for upto 6 staff or customers I have asked for the cabin to be changed to a portacabin , but ne…

I need to specify a lock at first floor level of a house which will divide the house from a separate student lettable space adjacent. For fire escape purposes it would be good to fit a lock which has an override in the event of fire so that each property can escape into the other. It would look really horrible to have an escape push bar. Is there anything that you could recommend, perhaps connected to the fire alarm system? Many thanks Janie

1. I've noticed some stores inc. large "Poundstretchers" and "99p" shop chains have started to block off their storefront entrances/exits with long and unbroken aisle 'barriers' of products - on mid-height shelving - so that customers no longer have an easy and straight exit/entry from store front to store back through the middle of the store;- instead the customer can only enter via the left (or right) side aisle and walk up the entire length of it (to about the middle of the store length) before they reach a junction which then gives them access to the blocked off central aisles. Therefore, in the event of a fire, anyone who is caught in these central aisles will find t…

Is there a maximum distance for positioning a call point from the exit door

My boss has recently taken over a pub and wants to use a fire door that leads to the externals of the building as a normal entrance for customers but in the same instance the door is located right where he is also going to put live bands which will block some of this door way. Someone has told him this is illegal and I'm wondering if you could give me a little advice on it please. Best regards Sarah

Hi please can you give me some info. If I was to paint yellow chevron markings and keep clear in front of a fire exit how wide and long does it need to be please. Thanks

Dear Sir/Madam I am 75, suffer with severe Angina and some mobility problems. I live in a Very Sheltered House (12 rooms/12 residents) which is on 3 levels. My room is on the top (2nd level) and to go out I use what used to be the main entrance door of the house when it was a private villa on the level below. There are steps down from this door to street level. On the lowest, below street level are the communal areas and some bedrooms and the side door is used now as the ‘Main Entrance’, with some steps to path then an incline (20%, a guess) to street level. I use this coming back into the house, ‘downhill’ from street level. However, the landlord decided that I was no…

Hello, I am working on a new build residential project. Because of the layout of the building the secondary escape route is across an open terrace at the centre of the building. The doors facing onto this terrace therefore need to be capable of being unlocked and accessed from the outside in the event of fire. The doors will need to be locked at most times for security reasons. Is there simple and secure mechanism that allows doors to be unlocked from the outside in emergency situations. If not what form of electrical hard wired locking systems would you recommend and are there specific suppliers you would recommend in the UK? Thanks for your help and let me know if y…

If a fire door opens onto a stairwell is there a minimum distance that the landing should measure. Regards Stan

Afternoon, I am installing some outside playground seating at a school. This will be in an area which is used by pupils when exiting the sports hall and going to their fire evacuation point on the field. Are there any rules about how big a gap I would have to leave between the seating. To confirm this is outside, once they have left the building via the final fire exit.

We have both push bars and locks with breakable ceramic tubes on our fire doors leading to outside the building. We have been told that we may only have 1 means of lock on the doors. Can you please verify this for me. Kind regards, Mark

With regard to a student accomodation job where we are charged with providing access control to 400 plus accomodation rooms. The locking scenario is presently as follows: The door latches closed with a handle on either side for entry/ egress There is also a thumb turn to secure the door from inside. If trying to get out in an emergency the thumb turn needs to be unlocked before the student can use the door handle to get out. This creates a dual action and as I understand it this does not comply with EN 179 for single action escape. please can you clarify for me

Hi I am currently living in a private student halls in Islington London, they have recently put restrictions on all windows allowing it to open only 100mm I was just wondering if this is legal as I feel it may be a fire safety hazard. We have also been informed if we remove them we will be fined £50. Would appreciate any advice you can give me Kind regards Bria

I have recently noticed that the door handle on the fire door which separates our two offices has been swapped over. I work in the office where the door hinges open into our office. So the way to open the door is to use the door handle to pull. The door handle has been removed and is now on the opposite side of the door. As the door pushes to open from the office side I do not think that a handle is needed. It seems to me that the fire door is now not safe for purpose. Please can you advise as to whether this is legal. The door can be opened by a small catch which must now be turned but no handle.

I'm an 83 yr old frail woman in a small blok of flats with fire doors. The outer door is now so heavy for me that I can't get out of the building. Can you clarify the duties of the landlord for me please?

I have a factory with 1 no door entrance 2x roller shutter doors and 2no fire exits to the rear of the building, I have to possibly block one door off or at least have a pathway around a new machine we require the factory is 6000sqft with no more than 20 members of staff in at any one time, can you please advise on current regulations on fire exits. the reason we have 2no exits this factory use to be 2 seperate factories that has now been converted into 1 factory. any advise would be welcomed. many thanks

Our WI owns it's old building. It's 137 yrs old and we have done extensive fundraising over the years for its upkeep. We had a side door fitted 30 yrs ago. The door opens inwards because we don't own the paddock it opens into. We have fire drills and torches and high viz jackets for 2 fire wardens. The door is always unlocked during meetings. How do we stand with fire regs on such an old building. It's not listed, but comes under the village conservation regs and has to maintain its character for the village we live in. Help

Hi all I REALLY need some help with this query............. We have recently had a LONG overdue Fire audit and the officer has deemed that our building does not comply with the maximum travel distance on two of our floors to the nearest protected staircase/fire escape route. The officer is requesting we install a new staircase at the offending end of our building and has stated that no-one enter this part of the building until this has been done. To give some background to our building, it is a turn of the century Old Malting building which our illustrious Council has deemed a "building of local interest". Are her "steps that the fire authority consider nece…

Hi, I'm just looking for some advice really. I work in a high school and we have emergency break glass devices for our door access system. The issue is we have pupils constantly pressing the break glass which obviously releases the door until it is reset. Is there any other solution that can help solve our issue? Would a switch for example be good enough as it would cut the power when pressed as a break glass would, but when released it would lock again? Thanks in advance.

Hello. Im am wondering if you can offer advice or point out any legislation regarding implementing a safe home fire exit route for our 15 year old disabled son who is autistic ? We have a 100 year old stone terrace house with only one entrance door. We had a 1st floor extension built a few years ago and our local council stipulated that the end window had to open outwards like a door to give us a safe exit straight onto the flat kitchen roof in case of fire. The flat roof has two low walls down each side and a sheer drop down to concrete at the end.We didnt think this was safe for our son and so we started to construct decking ( to reduce the drop from the window to the…

Is it ok to put upvc blinds iin front of a fire exit door,the blind/curtains are 200m in width and 2m in hight and multi colour The fire exits are to be used by children

Good Morning, Please can you advise if you are able to fit a digital lock to the outside of a fire exit door to enable access from the outside in? Many Thanks, Lucy

Can help please. Our Church has recently been broken in to on two occasions,the felons gained access by forcing a screwdriver or something similar in our fire exit door at the point of closure. I wondered if there is some sort of metal cover or plate available that we could put over this vulnerable point. Regards Rob

I am designing the interior of a ground and first floor office for 80 persons. There is 1 stairs and lift to first floor. The stairs do not have a lobby on ground and first floor. Do I need to build a lobby