Fire Safety Advice

DanGalway

Hi all,


For those who have experience with Fire Safety Certificates I have some quick questions in relation to the number of stairs required and their widths serving a first floor room falling under Purpose Group 5:

Area of room = 120sqm, occupancy load factor of 0.3, no. of occupants = 400 people.

Min. of two stairs required (2000mm in width, 400 people with 5mm each).

So,
A. are two stairs required with 1000mm clear width each, or
B. are two stairs required with 2000mm clear width each?

In terms of discounting a stairs during a possible fire outbreak, is a third stairs required as a back up??


Thanks

Strolling Bones

You must discount one stairs and the remainder must cope. So if only two stairs each must be wide enough for the full number of occupants.

braddun

is it a new building or existing building

No6

Dan based on the figure you are quoting for the occupancy you are talking about a Bar of similar function area. I would strongly recommend consulting with the fire Authority on your Occupancy levels at this stage as it is very unlikely they will give you 0.3 occupancy for the entire floor area, a dance floor and standing area around a bar perhaps but there will then also be lower occupancy levels for seating areas and behind a bar for example. A lower occupancy will also reduce your stair width requirements and doors and corridor widths.

In relation to discounting, if you have two stairs then each one must be wide enough to take the total occupancy, if you have three only one needs to be discounted so the sum of widths of the other two stairs need to be wide enough.