Tom Sutton

Check out page 82 of Offices and shops guide and there are other documents.

Need more information like the layout and compartmentation.

It does make a difference Scotland has its own building regulations and I am only familiar with the English and Welsh version. A dwelling house in England do not require self closer on any doors except a fire door between the house and an integral garage, you need somebody who is familiar with the Scottish regulations to help you.

I think the fire safety enforcers/courts would be lenient at this time but if you revise your evacuation procedure and make office managers responsible for checking there staff in/out with instructions to report it to the chief controller at the assembly point, if they have any staff not accounted for, I am fairly certain that the enforcing authority would accept that. There is more on the firenet forum check it out. http://firenetforum.org.uk/

It can be or not depends on the layout of the premises.

I think I would follow the guidance in the following National Fire Chiefs Council guidance. https://www.nationalfirechiefs.org.uk/write/MediaUploads/NFCC Guidance publications/Protection/01052018NFCC_simultaneous_Evacuation_guidance_final_doc.pdf

I need more information like the type of premises and the size.

As the detector reset after the ventilation it would appear, that it was a leak and not a false alarm so you should visit your doctor or ring him/her to get advice.

Couldn't the vent be located to vent to outside even if trunking has to be used.

Certainly the 60 persons rule of thumb is breached but on the LABC ruling couldn't the alarm be altered for a two stage alarm, the first a silent alarm, lights, playing a certain record over the tannoy or some other method and then the full evacuation signal, during the silent phase a member of staff could be instructed as part of the fire procedure to go to the appropriate doors and latch them back.

A door to outside (fresh air) the final exit door would not usually need to be a fire resisting door, unless there's a particular reason why that door needs to provide fire protection, for example opening onto a narrow alleyway or too close to an external escape. Assuming yours is the ground floor flat it could be argued that a fire emerging from your flat front door could affect those escaping from the upper flats?

There is no legislation, the FRS should arrive during the evacuation or soon after and you would be able to let them in failing that they would have to force entry.

I would consider Offices and shops and Factories and warehouses but if you are not certain then employ the services of a Fire Risk Assessor.

Yes more or less providing your advice was to follow the FRA and tell the RP of the possible consequence should the FRS do an audit.

Apart from being a idiotic thing to do inserting screwdriver into a live piece of electrical apparatus, why didn't you just remove it from its base and change the battery, that was most probably was all that was needed. Spending an hour to sort it out would have been more sensible than taking actions that could put you asleep for a very long time.

It would contravene the FFFSO which is illegal but you could give it away however I believe you have a moral duty to inform the person that it does not conform to the FFFSO because it does not have permanent labels. But before you take any action I would inspect it with a magnifying glass to make certain the permanent labels are not hidden in some difficult place because the manufacturers do hide them away from sight. Check out Fire safety of furniture and furnishings in the home A Guide to the UK Regulations to see what the permanent labels look like.

The RP could go against the advice of the FRA but if the FRS (the enforcing authority) conducted a fire safety audit and if they agreed with the FRA, could take the RP to court. It would be up to the court to decide the RP was right or wrong to ignore the FRA which appears to follow the relevant guidance.

It appears they are treating the situation as two flats and applying approved document B (Fire Safety) which requires every flat to be compartmentalised to a 60 minutes standard except the front door which should be FD30s fire door. The theory is any person in the flat will be safe for 60 minutes which should be sufficient time for the FRS to attend and extinguish the fire. The FD30s front door may appear an a nominally but a fire in the flat of origin has to burn through the FD30s fire door into the common area and the through the front doors of the other flats giving sixty minutes in total.

Are you just making a comment or do you have a question.

Sorry I am afraid they will most likely chase you as they usually do not give advice and most probably suggest you employ the services of a fire safety consultant.

It can be accessed from a FD30s fire door at ground level within the main staircase and a second FD30s fire door at basement level or a FD60s fire door at ground level within the main staircase. It also could be accessed outside providing a minimum 60 minutes fire separation between the basement and ground floor.

Check out section 7 https://www.bristol.ac.uk/safety/media/gn/escapesigns-gn.pdf it applies to the common areas of flats like any other buildings.

If it is a an ionisation type, they are operated by the products of combustion so a clean flame will activate it. I once was using a blowlamp in the kitchen, no smoke, and that activated the ionisation detect in the hall. I was using petroleum based instant adhesive in the kitchen which activated the ionisation detector in the hall and when I closed the door/opened the windows it stopped, so I suppose there could be others.

Are you using any fire safety guidance in your proposals or is it just your own ideas?

Check out the white book https://www.british-gypsum.com/literature/white-book and talk to British Gypsum.