Fire exits

[Robbie]

Hi All,

if a pub has 3 final exits, all 3 open inwards, 

is the occupancy 60 for each door or 60 in total please? 

[AnthonyB]

Discounting the widest if there is any slight chance you are going to have over 60 persons going through a doorway it needs to open outwards. Panicking public, especially if intoxicated will head en masse to the exit they came in and history is littered with the bodies of the hundreds who have crushed up and died against inward opening doors

[Lyledunn]

I think the 60 person rule is somewhat a back of a fag packet calculation designed to prevent small premises like shops with only front access to the street and single inward opening doors from falling foul of the fundamental desire to be able to turn your back to a fire and use an alternative means of escape. 
It is not a rule cast in stone and should be used with care. Consider a pub with inward opening doors and a floor space of 30m2. Pack the pub to the full capacity of 2 persons per m2 giving a total of 60 persons. Folk could neither get in nor out. 
I suppose equally, if your pub had 3 inward opening doors and a floor area of 600m2, you might be inclined to conclude that discounting one door and allowing 60 each for the remaining exits, a total of 120 persons might be safe. 
However, often floor space factors will guide licensing authorities. A floor space of 600m2 in a pub would calculate to 1200 persons for a public bar and 600 for a lounge so exit capacity to meet that occupancy would be required and I believe that to be the right approach. 

I do not think one can extrapolate the 60 person rule and I am 100% with AnthonyB on this one.