Tom Sutton

There needs to be an agreed procedure between those playing and whoever is leading the service/concert as to how music will be stopped in the event of an emergency so that an appropriate announcement to leave the premises can be made. This should have been picked up in the Fire Risk Assessment. And indeed how the leader is informed in the first place by stewards or other participants!

Check out page 106 of the above guide and there is information relevant to this situation, it states, At the start of the event or function you should notify all those present about: • the smoking policy; • the emergency warning signal; • who is supervising and how to identify them; • location of exits and escape routes; • taking only valuables immediately to hand but not to go to collect other belongings; • the location of muster points; and • what will happen after that (e.g. re-entry to the building).

Not only are you required to provide information and training to your staff you are required to consider relevant persons in your premises i.e. the congregation/audience. The guide for Small and Medium Places of Assembly says, "All other relevant persons should be given information about the fire safety arrangements as soon as possible. Information should be available for the public, e.g. fire action notices". You have chosen an announcement I would think is a good way to provide that information in your case but you are not required to do it that way, however I think it is an excellent method.

The national guidance accepted by all fire and rescue services is "HOUSING – FIRE SAFETY Guidance on fire safety provisions for certain types of existing housing" download and check out page 18 which states, 16.2 It is strongly recommended that the exit door from each unit of accommodation (bedsit or flat) is also openable from the inside without the use of a removable key. As you can see it says openable from the inside not the outside.

I am afraid there is no way to treat a piece of existing upholstery furniture so it will meet the regulations this needs to be done at the manufacturing stage and retailers should ensure it has been done before selling it. The person who sold you the sofas may be guilt of an offence, this depends on the circumstances, but you are not. You could treat the the sofas with fire retardant solution for your own piece of mind but you first need to look for the permanent labels which can be difficult to find and located in out of the way places. The display labels (green showing a cigarette and match) are usually lost very quickly its the permanent labels you need to find. Turn the sofas upside down, check there, inside the cushions and if the label is missing there should be evidence where it was fixed. Check out http://www.fira.co.u...mability-guides and download the "Fire safety of furniture and furnishings in the home" document for what the permanent labels look like and more information

New one on me, how many hinges are there, and do they conform to BS EN 1935: 2002.

Check out http://www.bre.co.uk/filelibrary/water_mist.pdf and you will see that there is no British standard for water mist fixed insulation, there is a European standard, EN 14972, also there is an ISO standard but that is only for water mist nozzles. I do not have access to the EN standard which may indicate colour coding but I am not able to help. If you look at the gaseous fire protection systems, such manual devices should conform to BS12094 - 3. This sets out colour requirements and technical specifications. It is important that they are different in colour to the normal fire alarm system - you would not want to operate the gas suppression system by mistake, thinking you had operated the fire alarm. BS7273-1 makes this point in connection with gaseous fire protection systems saying they should be "visually different". BS 10294 - 3 says manual triggering controls should be yellow and electrical stop controls should be blue. 4 Requirements 4.1 Electrical triggering and stop devices 4.1.1 Electrical triggering devices Electrical triggering devices (with the exception stated under 4.1.3) shall comply with the technical requirements of EN 54-11:2001, type B (excluding 4.1, 4.2 and 4.7.2.3 of EN 54-11:2001) with clear indication of the function. This means that the component shall be permanently marked, in the format of 4.7.3.2.1 of EN 54-11:2001, on the front face with “MANUAL RELEASE - Gas extinguishing system" (or in the national language(s) acceptable in the country of use). The colour of the component shall be yellow 4.1.2 Electrical stop devices NOTEA suitable yellow colour is specified in ISO 3864. 2) Electrical stop devices (with the exception stated under 4.1.3) shall comply with EN 54-11:2001, type B (excluding 4.1, 4.2 and 4.7.2.3 of EN 54-11:2001) except they shall be self-resetting, with clear indication of the function. This means that the component shall be permanently marked, in the format of 4.7.3.2.1 of EN 54-11:2001, on the front face with “EMERGENCY STOP - Gas extinguishing system”, (or in the national language(s) acceptable in the country of use). The colour of the component shall be blue The component shall function correctly when tested in accordance with 5.3. NOTE a suitable blue colour is specified in ISO 3864. Link to Euro standards http://www.xact.org.uk/fire_safety/information/information-standards.html

DDA cover far more than wheelchairs but I assume we are discussing wheelchair access. If wheelchairs do not have direct external access/egress then how do they get into the building?

What type of fixed installations are we talking about?

Yes there is, it is The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) Regulations 1988 (as amended in 1989, 1993 and 2010). Check out http://www.firesafe.org.uk/furniture-and-furnishings-fire-safety-regulations-19881989-and-1993/ for more information and the guide at http://www.fira.co.uk/document/fira-flammability-guide-october-2011pdf.pdf also worth a look at http://www.primelocation.com/guides/letting/guide-to-being-a-landlord/.

Cinemas, theatres and other places of assembly have door curtains so I cannot see why they should not be allowed in other workplaces providing they follow the same conditions. Curtains or drapes should be of durably flame-retarded fabric or inherently flame-retarded fabric and should conform to the latest edition of British Standard 5867: Part 2 – Fabric Type B when tested in accordance with the latest edition of British Standard 5438. Where approval is given for curtains to be used, the curtains shall where necessary be periodically re-sprayed to maintain their fire resistance. All curtains covering doors shall be hung on sliding rigs on a free running rail and shall be parted in the centre when in front of double doors to enable them to be parted easily. They should not trail on the floor and such curtains shall have a clearance of at least 75 mm between the bottom of the curtain and the floor. Curtains or drapes should be arranged so as not to obstruct EXIT signs/notices and/or fire extinguishers or other fire fighting equipment when hung in front of fire exit doors.

What about the normal lighting circuits in these areas the emergency lighting only needs to be connected to these circuits?

I would suggest you check out Approved Document M at http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations/approveddocuments/ that is the guidance for access to and use of buildings. You need 2.8 page 25/26.

The use of polystyrene tiles are legal but many authorities oppose their use because they can pose a surface spread of flame risk. It all depends on which tiles are used and how they are treated after they have been installed. There are two types, the old, which is not treated and the so called flame retarded type. How they are fixed to the substrate either using blobs of adhesive or the whole of the tile is covered. How they are decorated either using a non flammable covering (emulsion paint, etc) or a flammable covering. (oil based paint) Because it is difficult to control what happens after they have been installed, even if installed correctly, I personly believe they constitute an unnecessary risk and I would not use them.

How far does a person have to travel before they reach a place of comparable safety. (a protected route leading to a place of ultimate safety, outside and away from the premises)

I am afraid it is not as simple as that you would need to follow a specification that has been tested to the appropriate fire resistant standard. Check out http://www.firesafe.org.uk/fire-doors/ for more information.

I am not sure how you would get a steel containers that are acoustically treated, fire rated. It would need to be tested by an approved testing organisation, but how they could achieve this, is difficult to imagine. I would suggest you contact one of the testing organisations and see if they could advise you. Check out http://www.firesafe.org.uk/links/#ftc and select one of them.

The Furniture and Furnishings(Fire ) (Safety) Regulations 1988(as amended in 1989 and 1993) only apply to domestic furniture and your situation is not domestic, the appropriate guidance for you is http://www.fira.co.uk/document/fira-contract-flammability-guide-october-2011pdf.pdf. You also need to check out Fire safety risk assessment: small and medium places of assembly page 60.

What regulation are these?

Without a lot more information I cannot give a definitive answer but 40/50 meters does seem excessive and is there an alternative means of escape. I would suggest you have an Fire Risk assessment done to conform to The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 the appropriate guide is Small and medium places of assembly.

It looks like you have used “HOUSING – FIRE SAFETY Guidance on fire safety provisions for certain types of existing housing” page 44 for your guidance, which is what I would suggest but you need to include the full package. There is no mention of the passive fire protection, fire detectors in the escape route, etc. Another issue you need to consider is the enforcing authority, the fire and rescue service is responsible for The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 but they only deal with the common parts. The Local Housing Department deals with HMO’s and they deal with the whole of the premises and they are the enforcing authority you need to satisfy. However I am sure they will accept the above guidance the same as the FRS but the LHD are the people you should get advice from.

Providing there are normal standard doors in close proximity and capable of allowing all the people that would need to use them to escape then I would suggest you close them for security reason if nothing else, restricting the flow of oxygen to the fire I think it's not going to make much difference.

Let me have another go, the meeting room will have a BGU near the door to the staircase and is clearly visible. The occupants of the office will have to pass a BGU on route to the staircase and it will be clearly visible when they approach it. Nobody has to travel more than 45 meters to reach a BGU (less than 10 meters) therefore there should be no problems regarding the BGU's. There will be a sounder in the meeting room so there should be no problem hearing the alarm in the meeting room but you will need to wait until the meeting room is constructed and do a sound check in the office to ensure they can hear the alarm which could mean a new sounder may have to be provided. There are sound pressure levels you have to achieve, 60 db in offices.

You are correct the landlord has to keep an updated fire risk assessment (FRA) in respect of the common areas and should maintain a low fire risk as possible. However the main concern is the walls and ceiling which should meet a class "O" or class 1 spread of fire, this helps to ensure the escape route maintains a low fire risk. Because this area is a low fire risk the floor covering should never be involved and a bigger danger is bad maintenance resulting in a trip hazard. Because of this it is unlikely it would be necessary to include it in the FRA unless the fire risk is increased as the result of other reasons.

Fire doors are designated FD or FDs followed by the degree of fire resistance in minutes. Both types of fire door have always required the gaps on each side and the top to be 2/3 mm and fitted with intumescent strip since the 1980’s. In the past differing gaps at the threshold (bottom) have been quoted, 6 mm was common but the latest guidance FD designated fire doors gaps at the threshold (bottom) should be 3/4 mm or should be in accordance with the manufacturer’s installation instructions for the particular doorset design. For FDs designated fire door it should be the same as above but with cold smoke seals fitted, as well as the intumescent strip, to the sides, top and threshold of the door. When fitted, cold smoke seals should give an even contact with the floor but should not exhibit significant increased frictional forces that could interfere with the closing action of the door. So there will be no gap for air at all. The relevant British Standards are BS 8214 2008, BS 4787-1 and BS 5588-11.