[How to upgrade a door to a fire door?]

Hi Charlie

You can get fire doors or fire doors and frames made to measure quite easily to fit into your existing opening or even into an existing frame (although you have to make a number of fire safety assumptions about the existing frame).

The pages to visit about made to measure fire doors are http://www.safelincs.co.uk/Fire-Doors-with-30-minutes-protection-FD30/

Harry

[Fire safety precautions at home visits]

Hi Rob

We are no experts here, however I would guess that you are responsible for the safety of your team. If there is a substantial fire risk at the client's premises, surely this must be of as much concern as if there was a risk of personal assault. Some form of basic fire safety awareness training for your staff would probably help. Whilst not a classical fire safety risk, your staff ought to also be made aware of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning and how to recognise low level symptoms when they are visiting. This would protect your clients and team

Harry

[BS5839 part 6 Grade D in office building?]

I cannot judge if BS5839-pt6 Grade D is adequate( see http://www.safelincs.co.uk/pages/bs5839-6.html ), however, if from your assessment you have concluded that this is Grade D then yes, you can use interlinked mains powered smoke detectors. The power can come from the central power board or you can feed each unit from the nearest light fitting. The connection between the alarms can be with wire or with radio-interlink (see http://www.safelincs.co.uk/Radio-Interlinked-Smoke-Alarms/ ) You still need to work out if you need LD1 etc

I hope this helps

Harry

[Why do I need a door closer?]

Hi

If your doors are fire doors, then they need to be kept closed at all times (unless being used, of course) to stop the spread of fire. This is achieved with door closers which can be a bit of a pain as you want to move freely through your apartment without having to open heavy fire doors. You can use fire door retainers to keep the fire doors open, though. A fire door retainer will release the fire door and allow the door to close when there is a fire alarm going off.

You do not have to install visible overhead door closers; especially in apartments you would want to install concealed door closers like the Perko or the Astra concealed door closers.

Harry

[Why do insurances not enforce Fire Risk Assessments?]

Yes, there is a legal requirement to carry out fire risk assessments for landlords. Insurances, however, do not have to enforce the legal obligations. I guess most insurances will have blanket clauses that you have to adhere to all legal requirements and best practice without having to mention any specifics.

[Fire risk from tumble dryer?]

The main risk is the electrical risk. Please ensure that the power socket used for the dryer are connected to the correct circuit and is properly fused. The 'fluffy stuff' from the dryer is highly flammable. Just remind him/her to dispose of the matter regularly. The landing should have smoke alarms anyway; if you want to play a little safer you can also have an (interlinked) smoke alarm in the bedroom.

Harry

[Fire doors in care home - how to hold open?]

Dear Josie

Your care home ought to carry out a fire risk assessment, preferably with a professional fire risk assessor, as the legislations re care homes can be quite complicated. Only recently a court decided that all bedroom doors must be fire doors and have

1) door closers

2) fire door retainers (to hold the doors open legally). In the case of a fire, these doors close automatically

Kind Regards

Harry

[Evacuation rules]

Hi Tom

Thanks for clarifying this. Not quite sure what happened.

Thanks again

Harry

[Emergency lighting in hotel bedroom]

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is the relevant legislation and "Article 14 (h) emergency routes and exits requiring illumination must be provided with emergency lighting of adequate intensity in the case of failure of their normal lighting", is the requirement for emergency lighting. The word requiring is the crunch word and it will be the fire risk assessor who will decide if emergency lighting is required. The DCLG guidance used is Sleeping accommodation and Section 5 Further guidance on emergency escape lighting, is the relevant section. The word borrowed lighting refers to artificial lighting outside and independent of the premises like street lighting. If there is sufficient illumination ( 1 to 2 Lux ) in the room with the curtains closed then emergency lighting may not be required.

[distance between door frame and wall]

We normally allow a max of 10mm gap – meaning that this would be 5mm on each side of the door.

[is a slam lock latch ok on fire exit?]

I am assuming the exit door opens outwards. If it does the latch can be simply overcome in an emergency by having a panic bar installed (I would recommend panic bar rather than panic latch, as there are clients in the building). See http://www.safelincs.co.uk/Fire-Exit-Door-Equipment/ for examples