Ron

Thanks for your reply Mike.

Hi can anyone please advice on the best fire safety advice documents for a children's home. Children without mobility difficulties will share a typical two storey 4/5 bed house which has staff management/supervision 24/7. One child per bedroom. Many Thanks

Dear Anthony B thanks for your detailed reply. 👍

If you haven't looked at the guide -Fire Safety in Specialised Housing, it may assist.

Hello, I hope someone can assist. Is there a definitive answer of how many FRA's are required for a building comprising: Building is owned by one person. Large RENTAL retail unit on the ground floor with independent escape routes. Rented out by the building owner. 10 flats on the upper floors with independent escape routes. Rented out by the building owner. Is it three FRA's? One for the flats communal areas One for the commercial One for the entire building Or is it two? One for the flats communal areas One for the commercial Or is it something else?? Thanks for reading this far!

Hi Anthony B Thanks for your reply 👍

Hello, as per BS9980 2022 - it appears external wall surveys (EWS) only apply to buildings comprising of more than one residential buildings? Does anyone know if EWS is relevant regardless of the height of the residential building? Do hospitals have to carry out EWS (it appears they are not included in BS9980 2022 guidance? Thanks for reading this and if you can provide clarity for me that will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks Anthony B 👍

Good afternoon. Can anyone please assist. In a block of flats when is an External Wall Survey needed for fire spread??. The premises are 4 storey, no commercial premises, external walls are brick, UPVC windows, no infill panels in the wall, good compartmentation - visual survey completed. Good maintained fire doors and fire alarm systems. Single stairs with 2 flats per floor. Using a stay put evacuation for over 55's (specialized housing - no wardens on site). Used the The Government Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool and it came out as low risk. PAS 79-2 has some good info on the topic but to my knowledge it is still suspended. Can anyone please point to current good guidance. Don't want to go down the route of unnecessary survey and expense. Thanks

Hi FYI - some woolly wording in the lease is being referred to so hopefully they will come onboard. Thanks

Hi, has anyone got experience of the following? A two-storey purpose-built block of flats has a communal area from which all flats are accessed. It was built in the 1980’s. It has a mixed fire alarm system. In the communal area there is a BS5839:Part 1, fire alarm system with smoke detection and sounders in each flat. The rented flats all have BS5839:Part 6 standalone systems with heat detection in the kitchen and smoke detection in the hallway. The anomaly is that flats which are owner occupied have varying systems, from battery operated smoke detection in the hallway and some owner-occupied flats do not have any automatic fire detection. Our concerns are the owner occupied flats, and ideally we would like to have a BS5839:Part 6 smoke detector installed in the flat hallway. The question is, can the owner occupiers of flats accessed off the common areas be legally forced to have any form of smoke detection provided in their private flats. Clearly it would be of benefit to them if they are at home and a fire occurs. Such an alarm may also be heard in neighbouring flats. I know the RRO does not apply, the Housing Act I’m not sure about it in relation to the problem raised? The Housing Health and Safety Rating System just seems to be relevant to Landlords. Can such an issue with an owner occupier of a flat, accessed of the common area, not having smoke detection in the flat normally be dealt with as part of the leasehold? Your assistance is appreciated.

Thanks for the link a very interesting BRE document on which there may be further research in the future.

Thanks for the replies I will have a read up on the BRE report.

Hello, can anyone please advise. Is there any guidance which provides info on when a 5839 system should be replaced or part replaced. I have seen CIBSE part M which mentions - Fire detection and alarm systems 15 years (Components include break-glass boxes, sounders, sensors, batteries, shutters, door fire curtains, exit detectors, smoke release vents, indicator and control panels and fire doors etc). My thoughts are that some detectors and equipment may be subject to extremes of temperature and perhaps be in humid atmospheres in dirty dusty environments. Some are in heated office blocks, flats, schools, hotels, care homes etc. Is is normal to carry out such planned preventative maintenance at such a frequency even though the systems are tested weekly and have 6 monthly maintenance. The system are not plagued with false alarms or issues. If a catastrophic failure occurred a Plan B contingency arrangement is in place. Do you think its reasonable to not have a fixed change date for i.e. panel, detectors, call points etc. Many thanks

Hi - I hope someone can assist. For a mobile home I assume it needs a BS5839Pt 6 fire alarm system. Does anyone know what grade and category it should be? Thanks for your help.