AnthonyB

1983 is a museum piece (and as a collector of old/historical fire extinguishers something I'd probably be after!) and will be unservicable. ABC Powder is a quick fix for everything other than cookers, but messy and frowned upon. Water mist covers all likely domestic risks - solids/furnishing, cooking oils and electrical appliances. It's more expensive, but is the better option. It takes a bit to get your head around the water and electrics bit, but I have a client who effectively and safely used a 3 litre water mist extinguisher on a live 415v industrial drier fire when the traditional extinguisher (2 kilo CO2) failed miserably so it's not all talk!

You need to use a fire extinguisher maintenance company as you need special tools, charging adapters, O-rings and nitrogen cylinders. You may find it's actually cheaper to buy a new one off Safelincs!

You need to use a fire extinguisher maintenance company as you need special tools, charging adapters, O-rings and nitrogen cylinders. You may find it's actually cheaper to buy a new one off Safelincs!

Water Mist extinguishers do not have the suitable minimum fire ratings (5A/34B) under the mandatory Boat Safety Scheme and your boat could fail it's safety certificate examination and be prohibited if you use these. You could of course have them in addition to the mandated extinguishers as all your points are most valid

Building Regulations compliance at the time of the most recent conversion will have been by the provision of the external stair. The stair should have been kept in good repair over the years (& it would be interesting to see who should have been doing this according to the leases). If it's in poor condition it will need to be repaired or replaced - you can't simply remove it as this will require a Building Control submission and you will be told to either replace the stair or provide an accepted alternative (e,g, sprinklers). It would be less disruptive to do external work & repair/replace the external stair.

Some manufacturers of Grade D systems do provide call points. If you have a Rafiki (Fike) Twinflex fire alarm panel it is a BS5839-1 commercial fire alarm panel and call points can be added (they must be genuine Twinflex call points or they won't work - you need to get a fire alarm specialist to do the work). The number of floors you have means that under the benchmark guidance you should have a grade A system (which the Twinflex is) and that means call points will be required.

If it's an emergency exit then there should be a green (sometimes white) break glass call point that acts as a double pole isolator that will disengage the door in case other release methods fail (as has happened here). If there isn't then you've two problems and you need an electrician with experience of access control systems to repair the normal release button and add an emergency release break glass.

Plenty of commercial premises have fire exit doors that double as delivery entrances and I don't think you are going to get what you want this way. You obviously don't have any fire safety concerns and this is an access/land civil law issue - why is it a problem?

As Tom says there is a limit to what you get for free - you would need to instruct me formally (& pay) for that amount of depth.

The lower grades of domestic equipment does not use fire resisting cabling and could fail prematurely (fatal fires in past history where early failure of the system was a factor led to this requirement. BS5939-6 clearly states it is not for use on non domestic premises, the same applies for the equipment. Whilst it isn't impossible to find situations where it can be used the person deciding to do this bears a heavy responsibility for not following benchmark guidance and needs a cast iron justification as to why it doesn't provide a lesser standard of safety than a benchmark system (to part 1 of BS5839) The problem with village halls is that they were in a bubble for over half a century escaping fire safety legislation whilst other premises were reined in. Most halls only had any fire related concessions due to needing a dance or entertainment license which usually entailed no more than some emergency lighting/illuminated EXIT signs and an exit or two having panic bolts fitted, so the catch up caused by the Fire Safety Order is quite painful as you are starting from scratch.

What is the floor used for - there are different guides for different sectors - the full list is here: https://www.gov.uk/workplace-fire-safety-your-responsibilities/fire-risk-assessments

Your flat is not subject to the Fire Safety Order, only common areas - were the people telling you this selling you their services to carry one out?

The licensing officer is no doubt basing this on this clause from the fire safety guidance covering HMO's 21.3 In most situations fire-resisting doors should be fitted with smoke seals, as these restrict the passage of smoke into the escape route from the room where the fire is situated. The exception to this is where fire doors are fitted to rooms in premises where the fire detection system is restricted to the escape route (see paragraph 22.11/table C3). This will often be the case in three-storey shared houses. In these cases smoke seals should not be fitted, as their benefit will be outweighed by the fact that the smoke detectors in the escape route will only activate when the fire is at an advanced stage and beginning to breach the fire door. The resulting alarm may be so late sounding that the fire and smoke is already affecting the escape route. Where smoke detection is sited within rooms (LD2 coverage – see paragraph 22.11/table C3) the alarm will sound very early in the development of the fire and the smoke seals will be of benefit in keeping smoke out of the escape route, enabling occupiers to evacuate safely

British Standards are not law and are if anything a guide for professionals. It is quite possible for a competent Fire Risk Assessor to give an acceptable rationale as to why the safety of relevant persons would not be compromised by deviating from the BS recommendations (usually by removing extinguishers in areas with no risk) and I've done this for clients in several premises with no issues from enforcement authorities. Communal areas with a risk (ignition sources, combustibles) would always require cover (common rooms, laundries, etc, etc). With fire sterile protected corridors, the need is less clear, unless the equipment is intended for the use of the occupiers of the flats, which is unlikely, particularly as unless the occupiers are smokers the likely fire is likely to be either electrical in origin or involving cooking oils, neither of which can be dealt with using water. Therefore if you are keeping extinguishers they should really be a different type, if you wish to consider removal you should have your risk assessment reviewed by a competent person.

Safelincs don't manufacture the extinguisher - the UK manufacturer who produces Water Mist extinguishers (under license from the inventor at Telesto) is Jewel Saffire. They already make 3 & 6 litre extinguishers available through Safelincs, the way the technology works is such that a bigger can is required - so the 1 litre uses a 2 litre can, 3 litre a 6 litre can and the 6 litre a 9 litre can so a 9 litre unit is not viable. A 6 litre units can tackle an established car fire - a demo video is on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu1B7thWDcw

I would strongly suggest contacting the Local Authority Building Control Officer and the Fire Officer as the arrangement doesn't look typical and may have been carried out without the required permissions. You can check if Planning Permission was given yourself by searching using the address of the shop on your Local Authority's Planning Portal

All I can think of is optical spark detection, it's used in a client's furniture factory in their ducting (they use all the wood dust from manufacturing to heat the site via a central biomass boiler) their system activates local drenchers in the duct. Sparks are so common that the system is fully automatic and doesn't set the main fire alarm off.

This was never a problem when all signs just said EXIT or FIRE EXIT...... To be fair on fellow fire risk assessors the enforcers aren't too bothered either about mixed signs. The BS 5499 & ISO signs are similar enough to avoid confusion, admittedly the EC symbol is different (especially if used without the 'man') but is it really enough to make a difference (sign retailers excluded from commenting!). Whilst in tests comprehension of the EC signs was slower than the BS5499 (hence it's international adoption with a little tweak) it was still understood and I'd be worried if your ASET/RSET times were close enough for it to make an impact! New projects though have no excuse for mixing signs and I picked this up in a new build where they had mixed EC & ISO by using old stock. Government's don't like new red tape legislation so no doubt it will be left to risk assessors to sort it out!

Emergency escape lighting may be a more important feature - in the early days many permanent venues of the type you described were not required by licensing (which was the only way fire safety conditions were imposed prior to the Fire Safety Order) to have an electrical fire alarm system but all had to have escape lighting even if it was just illuminated exit signs over the doorways. Power failure doesn't require a fire and is probably more likely than a fire on the list of things that could go wrong.

The benchmark guidance for flats would expect emergency escape lighting to be required as part of a Fire Risk Assessment even if originally it had none.

Not necessarily (although I've been told in the past that a replacement fire alarm system technically needs BR approval, but no one bothers) although the OP mentions other alterations that could have led to it applying

If you need range you want a jet, although as most first aid attacks are started from 1-2 metres a spray is often more effective (particularly with additives)

And smoke alarms have been a Building Regulations requirement for many years also (leading to the Smoke Detectors Act being finally repealed in 2006)

If you can afford it, it's best to link your alarms (you can get radio linked domestic alarms now, no unsightly bell wire all over the house!) - if you were upstairs you may not hear your utility room alarm and smoke would spread until it activated other alarms

They may want to go through your property but you don't have to let them if there has never been such a route historically. A legal agreement would be required to be drawn up - you should contact a specialist property lawyer.