Is this floor plan legal? (re building regs)

[R.P.McMurphy]

Wrong, a _fire officer_ will presume that the occupant is unable to free themselves, so are more concerned with whether there is a way in for firemen to enact a rescue.

Steve

[Hugo Nebula]

On 25 Feb 2007 13:59:23 -0800, a particular chimpanzee named "mmzz" randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

You could be better waiting. The current requirements are for a fully enclosed (but not protected- the existing doors can remain provided they are fitted with self-closers) route from second floor to the front door.

The new Part B will allow an open plan ground floor, provided that it is sprinklered, there is 30 minutes separation between the ground and first floors, and there is an escape window from the first floor.

[Peter Parry]

Automatic centre/nail punch such as

the simplest to use.

[Peter Parry]

I presume you mean the fireman on an appliance once a fire has started rather than the one given the responsibility for fire safety? If so you are still utterly wrong. The first priority for any fire officer, no matter what their operational role, is the prevention of fire. The second is getting occupants out before the fire has developed and the fire service has been alerted - never mind arrived. The last priority is fire fighting and rescue. Even for that final priority access via windows is very low down the list. Of far more importance in city areas are the number of houses with "burglar proof" steel front doors and bars on windows which slow down or prevent access by fire crews. Neither of these features are controlled by building regulations but people regularly die in fires behind them. Once a fire is established gaining access for rescue is in most cases fairly irrelevant. Survival time in a smoke filled room is less than 5 minutes.

You are incidentally incorrect is saying that upstairs (or any) windows have a prescribed minimum size to allow for fire brigade access - no regulation exists concerning fire brigade access.

Part B1 of the Building Regulations do stipulate that designated emergency _egress_ windows for occupants escape (not rescue) must have an area of at least 0.33sqm and be at least 450mm high and

450mm wide with a base no more than 1100mm from the floor. The window must allow access to a place of safety, so leading to an enclosed courtyard would not usually be acceptable.

Such a window can be locked from the inside and need not provide access from the outside so a window with a steel grill which can only be opened from inside meets the building regulation requirement for means of escape even though it could not be used by the fire service for emergency entry.

In one specific case access is a fire planning issue - and that is where someone who is immobile has an upstairs protected refuge built (usually a bedroom) with smoke stop doors and protected ceilings and floors and which is notified to the local fire authority. In this case access from the outside should be such as to allow the appliance and crew to not just gain access but safely remove the occupant and possibly supporting medical equipment. In the event of a fire at such notified premises the crew would always attempt to gain access to the protected room as their first priority.

In most other cases breaking an upstairs window from the outside is usually the last thing to do - even if you can see someone on the inside. The first attempt would be to try rescue via downstairs. If the fire has developed breaking an upstairs window will often cause an explosive increase in the fire intensity if the room door is open by allowing increased airflow.

If occupants are trapped in an upstairs room survival depends upon sealing the door as much as possible to stop smoke ingress and opening any window to allow breathing air in. If the window can't be opened (or broken) by the occupants then survival time drops drastically - it is smoke which kills - not flames.

Access and facilities for the fire service in houses is covered by Part B5 of the Building Regulations. The new version applies from April of this year but the only significant new requirement in B5 is that there should be access for a pump appliance to within 45m of all points within the dwelling.

B5 has as its aim:

"That the building (and the site layout & access roads) are designed in such a way to aid the fire brigade fight fire and effect rescue of persons caught in a fire."

The requirements for B5 are met simply by providing access for vehicles - the access for firefighting personnel are subsumed in the means of escape.