Emergency exit leading into lane way, closed by electric gate

touchdown77

Is it permitted for an emergency exit to lead into a laneway, where the exit onto the street, is controlled by electric gates?

So the emergency exit opens into a small car park (6 spaces), the driveway of this car-park is the only way to the public street and the electric gate is operated by remote control (which only the car users have)

ht9zni1gs28crp

The follow on question to get your answer is what is the fire procedure? Where is the assembly point that this exit leads to? If its at a safe distance within the car park/laneway then its okay, if not then I would suspect the Electric Gate would need to be on similar immobilisation circuit as fire doors, ie de activated from 'hold' position to free swing?

sky6

I came across a similar situation once with a public service lane. problem was people started using it to dump rubbish.
so one owner decided to close it with a gate. After a few meetings with the council it was decided to keep it locked but everyone who backed onto the lane were given a Key. It's still that way now 15 years later.

Rabbo

The fire exit needs to discharge (without the use of keys,etc) to a "place of safety". The question is is the carpark a place of safety. I've seen a case where a fire exit discharged to an enclosed rear garden and the fire officer insisted on a means of escape from garden to the public road. There would have been a significant distance from the building the the end of the garden however the fire officer didn't consider it a place of safety.

touchdown77

Laura Hallowed Spirits wrote: »

The follow on question to get your answer is what is the fire procedure? Where is the assembly point that this exit leads to?

I'm not sure where the assembly point is, I'll check that out.

The question is is the carpark a place of safety.

Thats a good question, the car park is enclosed on all sides (except the laneway out) and I estimate the farthest distance that I could stand from the emergency exit door is about 40 to 50ft.

So assuming the worst case scenario, building entirely on fire, laneway blocked by electric gate, then the farthest that I could get away from the building would be 40 to 50ft. Doesn't seem like much.

Would the Fire Officer call out to the property and give me advice on this?

ht9zni1gs28crp

touchdown77 wrote: »

I'm not sure where the assembly point is, I'll check that out.




Thats a good question, the car park is enclosed on all sides (except the laneway out) and I estimate the farthest distance that I could stand from the emergency exit door is about 40 to 50ft.

So assuming the worst case scenario, building entirely on fire, laneway blocked by electric gate, then the farthest that I could get away from the building would be 40 to 50ft. Doesn't seem like much.

Would the Fire Officer call out to the property and give me advice on this?

The fire escape plan should tell you everything, the date of the plan versus the date of the gate installation will tell you also if the whole plan needs a revamp...