Hello,

I have a small office which has 3 rooms downstairs connected via a corridor and one room upstairs.  There are two fire exit doors downstairs, on off the main corridor, and another out of one of the rooms.  You then walk through a normal internal door half way up the stairs into a single meeting room upstairs.  The top meeting room has a fire exit which leads directly outside and not used by anyone else.  (floor plan attached).  My question is do I need a firedoor/s on either: the stairs (as upstairs has it's own fire exit already) or any of the office doors down stairs?

4 people work in this office on a regular basis but I employ a couple more people on site and do have a meeting room when we may have more than the minimal number of people for fire regulations.  Please could you give me some advice.

Many thanks in advance.

Jackie

Firstly the fire regulations apply even if no one is employed there - it's a common misconception that you need to have 5 or more employees before they apply. The only relaxation in the legislation for premises occupied by less than 5 employees is that the fire risk assessment (which must always be carried out) doesn't need to be recorded unless the premises requires a license.

Normally the stair would be protected (fire doors etc), but as the 1st floor has an alternative escape and the ground floor rooms are still OK based on travel distance to the front door your fire risk assessment could find that, whilst always beneficial, fire doors/protection is not mandatory.