A friend with a Guest House has asked me to use my CAD skills to produce him some fire evacuation plans to put on the bedroom doors of his Guest House.
We can't agree on whether each room should have the same basic plan (I am proposing that the main exit door is at the bottom) - or whether each room should have an individual plan oriented so that going through the door is like going north on a map.
I'm no expert, but in places like Travel Lodge, there are arrows in the corridors, directing you to the emergency exits. You don't have to look at a map. I guess it could get confusing though, if your way was blocked.
Yes. Phone the local fire officer at the local fire station, and ask him. Unlike just about any other public servant, they will give you first class free advice, they know what they are about, there is no force of law involved beyond there being some escape route, and they would honestly rather never to be called out ever again.
When I set up an office, that's what I did. And they were simply brilliant in explaining why they thought we needed extinguishers, what type they should be, what signs to have on them, and what the fire safety leaflet should have in it, where the alarms should go, and why, and how to organise an evacuation.
And a few other things we really shouldn't have been doing as well. Like piling empty cardboard boxes in places..
The easiest way to explain it is that after an hour, I was looking at the place with a fire officers perspective, in terms of inflammable materials, dangerous practices, and escape routes, and potential trapped people.
This is 100% better than just ticking the fire safety boxes.
Technically, they are evacuation plans, as fire is not the only reason it may be necessary to evacuate the building, although they are accompanied by instructions on what to do in a fire.
I've never seen any hotel do it any other way.
The usual convention would be North at the top.
I find that very confusing and always set any GPS map display to north at the top.
I will strongly endorse the advice to call in the local Fire Prevention Officer.
You do, that is odd. The usual way for most people is to have the top of the map, the general direction you are travelling in. Left is always left and right always right that way.
However, that way, you can't quickly tell whether you are travelling in the right direction overall. If I have North at the top and want to go South, I should be moving down the map. It may also be that I have a great deal many more years' experience of navigating by map than by GPS.
Local hotel I work for (some bits 400 years old) has a really odd situation.
Rooms 14 & 15 are opposite each other & at the end of a corridor. Room 14 has no fire escape, room 15 does. If the fire alarm is triggered the door on room 15 is opened by a remote control like that on a door entry system. The idea is that the occupant of 14 exits to the fire escape through room
It's clearly legal because the hotel recently spent a fortune on a complete new system, detectors, alarms, sprinklers etc. I spent half a day hanging extinguishers on walls & sticking signs next to them. All now passed & certified by the local fire brigade.
How the hell do you explain to the occupant of room 14 that, in the event of fire, he has to cross the corridor, enter room 15 & then escape by the far window?
I've not read the sign inside room 14 - I'll have a look net week.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:
There's probably a set of emergency underpants hanging on the door of room 14.
Escape signage, whether illuminated or not, will enable you to find your way to an exit in an emergency. However it is good practice for anyone in an unfamiliar environment to be aware of their escape route before it becomes an emergency, hence the need for a fireplan.
By "overkill", I presume you mean "the minimum legal requirement"?
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