AnthonyB

With respect to the fire alarm existing school standards only require a manual fire alarm system (i.e. call points) for life safety (but are advised to have it for property protection which is not a legal requirement) unless they are used in part for extra curricular activities or have areas with a high risk layout where detection is sometimes required. An exception is schools of CLASP construction, which have an acknowledged high risk of rapid & hidden fire spread and it's usual to provide full detection to these. Domestic detectors are unsuitable and of little use in this environment and don't comply with workplace legislation for fire warning systems if battery only in any case, plus only provide a very localised warning - detection should be part of the main fire alarm system.

If a risk assessor is just ticking the boxes they would be correct, but a true risk assessment that is, like the law, non prescriptive and based on the risk, can quite correctly dispense with parts of BS7273-4 (which itself allows for situations where an element such as a green break glass double pole isolator can be omitted) where other risks higher from having them. I've assessed specialised housing and children's homes where it's been agreed the risk to residents from escape is higher than from fire and the green break glass units can be omitted and all parties including the fire authority have accepted this.

Depends on what your lease say as to who is liable for walls between flats, etc. Ducting is usually common.

If the understore store has the gaps suitably firestopped and has a fire door, then being concrete it could be used as a store, although there could be an issue if that is an active distribution board, also is it a metal or plastic board?

If the separation is to 60 minutes the shop doesn't need to be linked to the flats and that is why Building Control didn't require it. The shop can then be assessed in isolation & if a small unit where a fire is going to be readily detected by the staff and small enough for a simple alarm of a shout, whistle, horn or gong to be heard throughout the unit, then it doesn't require a fire alarm system. If it's larger then a commercial fire alarm system to BS5839-1 (the flats have a residential system to BS5839-6) would be required with the legal minimum for a shop being called Category M consisting of manual call points ('break glasses'). Whether detection is required is based on layout and use or whether early warning for property protection (not a legal requirement, purely a business & insurance decision) is desired.

Building regulations, the fire safety guides and the relevant British Standard BS7273-4:2015 all support your tenant's fire risk assessors standpoint in that doors used for escape with access control works should - fail to open on power failure - have a double pole isolator to the lock supply for emergency release (the green break glass) - interface with the fire alarm system As you should have a fire risk assessment for your common areas your competent assessor would be best placed to advise if you can deviate and putting the justification in your FRA. You shouldn't have false alarms either out of hours, this would indicate an improperly maintained system or poorly designed one or poor management allowing an environmental trigger to occur.

Was this a training provider that told you this? The law hasn't changed at all and the relevant Government Guidance currently doesn't set this frequency either - it does state that the frequency is determined by the risk assessment so it is possible that in some premises it may well be appropriate for quarterly training, but it certainly isn't law nor advised either as a standard frequency.

Possible breach of article 13 of the Fire Safety Order (relating to escape routes including their protection by fire doors) which is a criminal offence. The employer would be liable, plus any staff with control over an issue could be liable as well depending on the circumstances. If you are getting nowhere then the fire service would be your next port of call assuming you don't have a union to involve first.

All it sounds like they are doing is creating an inner room, which if travel distances were OK before will remain acceptable. There would need to be one of the following: - Vision panel between inner room & access room; or - Automatic Detection (smoke) to the access room; or - The partition between the inner and access rooms stopping at least 500mm below the ceiling

If it's a H&S concern it would be the environmental health department of the London Borough in which the hotel is located. If a fire safety one it's London Fire Brigade's Enforcement Teams, contact your local borough for more info https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/community/your-borough/

It's not a regulation, but the latest edition of the signage standards (ISO 7010) do say exit signs should include text unless in buildings where only staff would need to understand the signage. It's not retrospective unless a risk assessment deems it so (which any sensible one is unlikely to do so except in certainly specific cases). Of course it's impossible to comply with where you need internally illuminated exit signs - they are still making these with obsolete arrows and symbols on so you won't see text legends for a long time yet!

Your answer is here (including the requirements of older standards and when they can stand and when they don't): https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/fire-safety-purpose-built-04b.pdf

Water mist is preferred as foam cannot be used on two of the key causes of domestic fire - Cooking oils & electrical equipment. The smallest 1.4l water mist wold be sufficient

Change your contractor - they are trying to fleece you by scare tactics by saying it's the law. Firstly it's not and secondly it's been in the guidance for a lot longer than 6 months! Common sense and a risk based approach dictates that smaller areas, especially if only one exit, would be more than amply covered by a single unit. You will never get prosecuted for this, the only time you might have to accept the overkill is if your insurer insists. The Standards are influenced by those who make and sell extinguishers or represent their trade and are not as objectively independent as they should be.

I'd double check Scottish Technical Standards as they are increasingly different from England & Wales in may aspects.

Do bear in mind that as a Care Home it should be operating progressive horizontal evacuation and you may not be putting 60 through the route at once, so you may be able to justify the existing configuration.

PAS 79:2012 Fire Risk Assessment. Guidance and a recommended methodology

Your internal doors are likely to have been fire doors, the standard at the time (CP3 chapter lV part 1: 1971 referenced in The Building Regulations 1985 - assuming the conversion was Building Regulation compliant) was to have all doors as self closing fire doors other than bathrooms and toilets. These would have been solid doors with 25mm stops and internal chain type closers. You can't make anything worse than the original standard at the time of install so you would need fire doors (but only FD20 20 minute standard, although in practice they can be difficult to find so a FD30 blank is often used) which wouldn't need intumescent seals just the stop. You don't need the self closer any more though - current standards don't require them any more except to the front door.

It's based on numbers and persons using the door. Normally 60 persons is the cross over from good practice to a must, based on official benchmarks going back many decades, if there are gatherings of the public where they could be a mass panic and the risk of crushing this can affect the risk assessment.

There is the old fashioned method of interlinking via cable using standard interlink smoke alarms. I doubt they transmit continuously as the batteries wouldn't last too long but the manufacturer will know the full info - if it's any use to you they transmit on 868MHz

The old answer was the last flight of external escape stairs was cantilevered and only lowered to ground when used: You need to consult your Approved Inspector or Local Authority Building Control immediately with your issue - they may not accept certain solutions, the fold out ladder is unlikely to comply, chutes have been accepted but normally in very specific circumstances and not for the public. You may find it more appropriate to seek a fire engineered solution to avoid the need for the alternative route - bigger projects than yours have avoided the need for entire stairs by use of domestic sprinklers and a enhanced smoke control solution.

No, any fire alarm system in a place of work must have two power supplies to meet the Health & Safety (Safety Signs & Signals) Regulations, which usually means mains and battery. You would need all alarms in the relevant area to sound, not just one in a local area. This assumes the bays are not open air and the system isn't a proper BS5839-1 wireless fire alarm system where individual devices have dual battery power.

Depends on the make of panel - some have far greater ability for complex C&E than others. It's not by any means beyond possibility though. You could ask on firealarmengineers.com/forum

Yes it could affect insurance and could be a criminal offence without needing for a fire to even occur as there only needs to be the potential risk to life rather than it being realised by an incident. I'd get a new FRA though by someone that knows what they are doing and the specific standards for domestic premises- a common areas only system would be inadequate as it would only sound when the escape was already affected by fire and would draw people from the relative safety of their flat into the smoke & heat filled stair, plus wouldn't penetrate the rooms of the flats with enough audibility to wake occupiers. Also, depending on the nature of the construction of the building and it's conversion it may not need the alarm at all.

The single light on a standard EL fitting (green or if a very old unit red) shows the mains supply to the fitting is on and the batteries should be charging, if the unit is still showing it's LED it would imply it's mains feed is still on and the light is fed off a different circuit to the one on the test switch you used......or that something else is wrong. If it has more than one LED then it's likely to be a self testing unit and could have a meaning specific to the fitting.