Ovi

Hi there, I was wondering if anyone could help with the following issue. The fire risk assessment carried out by the company which we have contracted states that we should have a smoke detector installed in our IT server room. The building is two storey and is only used for offices. This room is across an escape route. The problem we've got is the additional smoke detector required cannot be wired into the existing fire alarm control panel. Does anybody have a solution to this problem? I was thinking of using radio-linked smoke detectors: 1 inside this room and the other one on the corridor so that people can hear the fire alarm easily. Would this solution satisfy the requirements of BS5839 part 1? Thank you.

Excellent! Thank you very much for your answer!

Hi there, Can anybody recommend me a fire engineering course or any other course at this level recognised nationwide? Also, what is the highest qualification in fire safety in the UK? Do I need to enrol in an University or I can achieve this by a Ltd. company providing these types of course? I'm looking to specialise in fire safety consultancy, design, fire risk assessment. Thank you!

As Tom said, there is no limit on the number of doors in a fire exit route. However, kitchens/kitchenettes are considered fire hazard rooms and you shouldn't consider that an alternative means of escape from any other part of the building except from that particular kitchen (e.g.: not allowed to escape from a normal risk area <office> through a high risk area <kitchen>). You will need to considerate another escape route from the building.

Great! Thank you very much, Tom!

Hi Tom, How did you calculate this? 132mm wide door => maximum of 60 people allowed? is there any formula ? Thank you! Regards.

Hi there, Is there anywhere specified in the legislation that if a particular area in a building is used for healthcare (e.g. 60% of that building) and 20% is used for private flats and the other 20% of the building is used for shops, the whole building will be considered as a Healthcare building and therefore, the Health Technical Memorandum 05-02: Firecode will apply for the entire premise? For example: "in a multi-functional building (e.g.: 7 storey building: 5 floors healthcare, 1 floor flats, 1 floor shops - what guidance will be applied for this multi-functional building? Thank you!