Tom Sutton

Article 11 of The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 says “The responsible person must make and give effect to such arrangements as are appropriate, having regard to the size of his undertaking and the nature of its activities, for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures”. This should be a recorded document if you employ 5 or more persons. This is the fire strategy for the premises and should include the fire procedure for disable persons known as a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) therefore you should have a PEEP for the all the disabled guests. Check out http://www.firesafe.org.uk/fire-emergency-evacuation-plan-or-fire-procedure/ for some information.

It appears you are involved in building regulations and you could be subject to the Smoke Detectors Act 1991 or it could be a compensatory requirement, this is why the building control officer has specified the installation of a mains operated smoke detectors. Because you are involved in Building Regulations in England and Wales, Approved Document: Part P applies which requires domestic electrical installations to be designed and installed safely according to the "fundamental principles" given in British Standard BS 7671 Chapter 13. This means you need a professional electrician to install them and certify them for the BCO to grant a completion certificate.

I have responded to this question before and the response is the same. You are subject to The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and you are required to conduct a fire risk assessment (FRA) of all the common areas including the open walkway you speak of, however these walkways will make the FRA a little simpler. If I were conducting a FRA I would use Fire safety in purpose-built blocks of flats and http://www.firesafe.org.uk/regulatory-reform-fire-safety-order-2005/ and http://www.firesafe.org.uk/fire-risk-assessment/ also https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-risk-assessment-sleeping-accommodation . To my knowledge if you want step by step guidance I am afraid it is not available unless you employ a fire risk assessor.

Green-foam, I agree, but I am just quoting the BS, but common sense says why! If you haven't damaged the tamper tag why replace it? I think the problem is, they are trying to deal with different types of extinguisher with the same clauses and I believe you need to apply common sense at times.

The inside of a flat is exempt from The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 only the common areas are subject, but you are subject to the Housing Act and Building Regulations. You should contact the local Housing Department and the Building Control Department to ascertain the necessary action you should take. The relative guidance is www.cieh.org/uploadedFiles/Core/Policy/Publications_and_information_services/Policy_publications/Publications/National_fire_safety_guidance_08.pdf and Approved Document Part B Fire Safety.

BS 5036 pt 3 2009 says you should reassemble according the manufacturer instruction also replace with new any safety clip and indicating device designed to show if the extinguisher has been operated.

In addition to what green-foam has said, the theory is, if a glass object is concave or convex it could direct the rays of the sun onto one spot causing overheating with possible ignition but in my opinion it is very rare.

I am not sure what you intend installing is it an automatic fire extinguishing system or a fire alarm or fire extinguishers. You say "As you can see, each one is made up of one small fire panel and fire extinguishers" but I cannot see anything.

Depends on the travel distances and the layout of the flat also you may have escape windows.

It is the case you are required to conduct a fire risk assessment of all the common areas in a accordance with The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 the best guidance is Fire safety in purpose-built blocks of flats and check out http://www.firesafe.org.uk/regulatory-reform-fire-safety-order-2005/ and http://www.firesafe.org.uk/fire-risk-assessment/

It depends on the purpose of the fire doors, if they are smoke stop doors dividing up a corridor then flush jamb doors are acceptable and even fire doors, depending the test data for the fire doors. If they are fire doors then rebated doors are more effective but you then need door selectors to ensure the doors close in the correct order. Why would you need to fix door selector to a flush jamb double fire door set it doesn't matter which doors closes first?

If the door is a fire door then it is not fit for purpose, it needs fixing, and the gap should not exceed 3 mm +/- 1 mm. The brush and intumescent seals will not work with just an excessive gap.

I would agree with you use a rope to lower the cage to the ground but not at the risk of yourself, pets have a high survival instinct you must make sure you escape.

If a short label is used the batch/ID number should be used but it says should not must. Also the retailer should have all the relevant information so the enforcing authority can trace the source of the furniture. Check out http://www.firesafe.org.uk/furniture-and-furnishings-fire-safety-regulations-19881989-and-1993/

Yes it is more than likely the fronts doors need to be 30 minute fire doors self closing and to establish if the fire doors meet the required standard you need an assessor if the doors are not marked. Check out http://fdis.co.uk/

There is no regulatory clearance distance from a fire exit door other than there should be sufficient clear space so the means of escape can be used effectively.

You need to contact the manufacturer of the cooker and get an installation manual to check if it has been installed correctly. You should also check your tenancy agreement to find out what is expected of your landlord and yourself which may help. You should also contact the landlord and keep copies of all correspondence explaining your concerns. You could also contact the local housing authority who administer the housing act which covers all housing but the fire safety legislation does not cover domestic dwelling. Finally you could contact the local fire and rescue service and get a home risk assessment visit. http://www.firesafe.org.uk/uk-fire-rescue-services-details/

There is no set period of time a fire door will remain effective regarding its fire resistance. It will depend on how it is maintained and if it has been subject to misuse. It needs to be assessed by a competent person who should be able to decide what, if any work needs to be done for the fire door and frame to meet the required standard or it may need to be replaced.

Check out http://fwww.bwf.org.uk/ffileadmin/documents/assets/ffd_2020_20explanation.pdf and all the infprmation you require is in this document.

Fire door leaves are generally not required to provide a specific surface spread-of-flame barrier, and may therefore be decorated as desired. It is recommended in BS 8214 2008 that overpainting be limited to a maximum of five coats of conventional oil-bound paint or varnish. Based on this, 1mm of plastic covering is not going to serious effect the fire door.

I agree Dan but if you know your stuff and don't act on a whim you should be able to provide a good account of yourself, if you ever come up against that man with the curly wig.

We now live in the age of risk assessment, the RR(FS)O, DCLG guides are not prescriptive and are full of, if required, with no, shall or must. The Approved Documents are similar, in that, you only are expected to achieve the functional requirement. If you follow the AD then you will achieve the functional requirement but you don’t have to, providing your method will achieve the functional requirement, that’s why we have compensatory solutions. I think the one bed, one bedroom, in premises subject to the building regulations, is following the national standards, but not fully and you need to understand the national standards where and when you should enforce it. If a married couple or a pair of people devoted to each other wish to share a room then I think they should, providing more than 80% are single rooms, it is not going to affect the MoE. Every bedroom should be enclosed in fire resisting construction, in most, if not all situations, but what if residential sprinkles were installed? I worked in an age of prescriptive codes and it was easier, now days it is a lot more difficult.

ADB uses the word 'should' not and not 'must', hence although the guidance is that there should one be one bed in each room it is not an absolute measure.

I don’t think it is as easy as ADB states, for new premises it is correct but for existing premises you need to check out National Minimum Standard for older persons, there are other standards for other types of care homes. I will research it further and get back if I find any more information also I may try firenet.

The person selected by the Responsible Person to carry out fire safety work must be competent. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 18 (5) states, A person is to be regarded as competent for the purposes of this article where he has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to enable him properly to assist in undertaking the preventive and protective measures. I believe you have two choices one to employ a qualified outside contractor to carry out the work, or get instructions from the manufacture on your fire dampers, regarding testing and maintenance. First he needs to understand as much as he can about the subject, check out An Industry Guide to the design for the installation of Fire and Smoke Resisting Dampers for background information. An example of a manufacturer’s information on maintenance, http://www.bsb-dampers.co/home/products/fd_series/maintenance.aspx you need to find the manufacturer of yours.