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If the FB have to get to the risers in an emergency, I would have thought that the replacement of a door would be the least of your problems

Looks like a Banshee Excel and certainly isn't old.

Display materials and decorations Displays are often located in corridors and in entrance foyers, and generally comprise materials such as paper, cardboard and plastic which provide a means for the rapid spread of fire. You should evaluate what material could ignite first and what would cause the fire to develop and spread, and assess how materials used in temporary or permanent displays would interact with surface linings and position them accordingly. To reduce the risk of fire spread, you should consider the following: • avoid the use of displays in corridors and foyers; • minimise the size and number of display areas to discrete, separated areas; • do not put displays down stairways which are part of a designated escape route or where there is only one direction of escape (i.e. dead-end conditions); • treat displays with proprietary flame-retardant sprays; • the use of display boxes; • keep displays away from curtains, light fittings and heaters; • keep displays away from ceiling voids which may lack fire barriers; • ensure that there are no ignition sources in the vicinity; and • ensure displays do not obstruct escape routes or obscure fire notices, fire alarm call points, firefighting equipment or escape signs https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-risk-assessment-educational-premises

A single available exit route can only be used by a maximum of 60 persons and gangways must be available at all times in halls. If you feel there is a serious risk then your local fire service are the enforcement body for fire safety legislation, which schools are not exempt from. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-risk-assessment-educational-premises https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-risk-assessment-small-and-medium-places-of-assembly

No, Blackwood fire is a "Fire protection company" based in Wales, like most fire protection companies they buy things in, in quantity and have their own brand sticker put on it. It is only my guess that it is a roshni, your screen shot is of such a low resolution it's not possible to be 100% accurate, also as you say it is no longer there, so it can not be proven one way or the other.

Of course, Mike North is totally correct in his advice, but OP seem to be a parent of a child in the school who may have no access to the fire risk assessment or might not understand it if they did see it. Plus it will take some time to achieve My view is that the possibility of padlocks on what may be fire exits on a school building is so serious, it should be reported to the fire service as soon as possible. This is not about getting anyone into trouble or causing a fuss, its about ensuring the safety of vulnerable children The LFB will get a Fire Safety Officer - or in some cases the local fire station - to visit the school within a couple of hours of receiving the call. The LFB will be able to either give advice to the school if they've got it wrong or reassure you that the system is OK Please use the phone number half way down this page rather than the email contact fields https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/contact-us/ Good luck

No answers to date.

If you want to see a selection of old sounders there are some featured in this:

How old is the building? Why not ask the fire service - they may be happy as it is and if not will give you some pointers as to what would suit. Whilst not responsible for your FRA they are still permitted and indeed have a statutory duty to provide certain fire safety advice

I'd be asking why they all need full replacement rather than repair first and checking what minimum standard is required by the FRA. I see too many doors replaced where government guidance & risk assessments permit original doors, repairs and upgrades. I've seen that price range quoted around before a few times.

It depends on the size and depth of the gap - different products are available depending on the dimensions. Generally, for gaps up to 15mm you should completely fill the gap to the full depth of the door frame with tightly packed mineral wool. Make allowance though for a 10mm deep capping of intumescent acryilic sealant on both sides. The sealant should cap the mineral wool for a 10mm depth between the frame and the wall and not just to cover the surface of the gap. Intumescents are gap fillers and need surfaces to expand against under pressure, if applied to just a flat open surface they will just foam and fall away so they need to be inside the gap. This should be done all around the door frame to wall gap on both sides. Where the gap is up to 20mm, follow the same method as above but use tightly fitted 15mm timber or MDF architraves to overlap both frame and wall by at least 15mm. For small gaps such as 3mm to 6mm where use of mineral wool is impractical you should fill the gap as deep as is practically possible with intumescent acrylic sealant. For especially large gaps line the opening with continuous solid timber and fill any remaining gaps as above. (Gap filling information from previous posts on the subject by Neil Ashdown who regularly assists with fire door queries on here)

If the dampers are of the intumescent honeycomb or fusible link shutter type for fire then they are likely to have complied at the time of install. Retrospective provision of duct detection and conversion to duct detector activated smoke & fire dampers is not retrospective (nor is BS5839-1) unless the risk posed by them is intolerable, which would be based in part on where the duct goes and where it's inlets and outlets are. If your common area FRA doesn't require it then you wouldn't be obliged to undertake this, but you do have to coordinate fire safety with other responsible persons - if they want it but your assessment doesn't require it you could propose to undertake the work on the basis that the tenant pays for it.

Sounds excessive, plus useless in any case even if it was needed, I've seen this implemented and charged to leaseholders when not actually required & they've taken it to a FTT and had the charge overturned. Really small conversions like that often suffice with 30 minute compartmentation (as would a really small new build block of flats) making them suitable for stay put so no communal detection is required. A single ground floor lobby doesn't need smoke control & emergency lighting isn't considered a high priority either. On the other hand, if for some reason the compartmentation between the two flats was so poor that simultaneous evacuation was actually required you'd need more than two smoke/heat alarms as the common areas would need a smoke alarm that was linked to heat alarms in both flats so a fire is detected before if leaves the flat of fire origin and can wake everyone in each flat - which depending on flat layout may require additional linked alarms so as to ensure at ;east 85dB outside bedroom doors to wake people.

No, it's never been a requirement - just a single different call point each week gradually rotating them so each one gets tested eventually. A long time ago you had to have tested every call point within 13 weeks meaning on big systems you did have to test more than one a week, but that was dropped a long time ago - after all the service organisation should test 100% of call points each year across it's 2 or more service visits anyway.

Weekly testing, not monthly. Also servicing need only be 6 monthly. Opinions vary on the L5/AOV issue - if treated as a component of a smoke control system then you could argue that you follow the BS9999 maintenance intervals for smoke control systems - after all BS5839 does allow parts of it to be disapplied where it an L5 system is purely to operate a linked system as oppose to being a fire warning system.

I think it may be a sounder from a business in Wales called “Blackwood Fire” as that is what the fire extinguishers also in this building say on them but I cannot find images of the sounders they provide anywhere

Ooo could be! I was wondering if it was a Roshni but I didn’t see the logo on the end and it looked like a different shape slightly, is it an older Roshni perhaps? Possibly from the 1990s? As it was in 2002 and the sounders were removed by the looks of it so they must have been there a while.

Hi Are canvas art photo print framed pictures OK in a fire escape stair well. Only 5 and well spaced apart but I have n way of knowing if they have been made of fire resistant material (like the curtains in the school) or if they have been treated retrospectively. Any advice? will they be acceptable in terms of fire safety?

I’m just wondering if anyone can educate me on fire exits in schools? I attended a school play today and the hall was over capacity with 200+ parents, 100+ children and 15 members of staff, only one fire exit was available to parents which I find concerning as we were packed like sardines and there were no walkways or paths available to the fire exit which was a single door. I’m writing a complaint to the school regarding harassment from other parents and the event being poorly organised but I’m also concerned about the health and safety not being taken into account, perhaps I am overly anxious about these things but none the less I’d like a clear directive before I include it in my complaint.

Thank you Anthony B for your advice I agree with all what you said

That looks very much like a "Roshni" fire alarm sounder. A very common conventional sounder. It has a choice (via DIL switches) of 32 tones. It operates at 24v (But will work at 12v) Still available today new for less than £30

I would suggest you contact the boiler installer to establish why your boiler beeps. I would also suggest you buy and install a carbon monoxide alarm, one with a digital display is best such as the kidde unit. Click here as it not only has a digital display it also has a peak level reading too.

Your alarm is 7 years old, the Deta 1151 smoke alarm is obsolete. I would suggest you change the complete alarm, also if you have any other Deta 1151 smoke alarms I suggest you change those too.

Just out of curiousity, does anyone know what fire alarm sounder this is? Here are some images. I am interested in old media from the 90s and 2000s and this particular piece of media is from (2002) and I noticed these fire sounders in the building. I am interested in old sounders and would like to work with fire alarms eventually. In the next part of this media a year later (2003) these sounders had gone.

We have had an FRA completed for a Victorian Conversion with two flats. Our common entrance is 1.5x1m. We have two doors that open into a very small common area leading to the main door. The recommendations include two smoke alarms, one heat alarm and emergency lighting, signs and a few other measures. The area is well lit during the day and night as there is good borrowed lighting. I can evacuate my flat to the main door in one stride. This seems excessive and even the Fire Service questioned the emergency lighting. Any advice regarding proportional measures? Thanks