Historic library

[Mike North]

I am looking at a historic library, the regulator has got involved. 

The main issue is that currently on the first floor there is a viewing gallery to the main within the room.  The gallery has a single opening (no door) giving a single direction travel distance of 20m there is a further distance of 5m to the head of the stair. 

Off the stair are two offices, both doors will have to be replaced by replica doors. Looking at the regulations

A single door cannot be installed in this position as if it swings into room there is a risk if the door tipping someone over the gallery or due to the curvature of the wall, if the door swings the other there is no clearway through.

I cannot use small premises as the travel distance is excessive, the same with a single escape stair.

Does anyone have any other options that I may have missed, bar putting in an additional stair or closing the building?

[AnthonyB]

What are the occupancy numbers for the rooms, how high is the ceiling of the main library room & what category of AFD is there?

[Mike North]

Occupancy numbers, 4 staff, 4 researchers.

Unfortunately they hold infrequent lectures in the building with up to 50 visitors and an annual open day

It has a vaulted ceiling approximately 10m with 2 detectors in the roof space

It has a L2 alarm/detection with manual call points at all exits

 

 

 

[Lyledunn]

Have you floor plans? I am not 100% understanding your description. 

[AnthonyB]

If you can apply  BS9999 in general as a solution to the premises the fire alarm would give you an extra 15% in travel distances and 15% less door width required & the ceiling height an extra 27% TD & 27% less width subject to the maximums in Table 15 which would give you 24m TD and 3.3mm per person door width  if risk profiling and as an existing building I'd argue the PAS79 principles for risk assessment would tolerate the extra metre - this wouldn't account for the travel within the offices however as a heritage building a bit of common sense should apply - whilst the library could be deemed a high fire loading what is actually going to be the ignition risk and what is going to the fuel for a primary fire large enough and long burning enough to ignite the tightly packed books.

If the premises don't meet BS9999 enough such that the above relaxations are 'cherry picking' from it you are back at square 1 and it's time for a fire engineer and modelling. 

[Mike North]

[Lyledunn]

I don’t think closing the building is warranted. Assuming structural alterations are out, given the trade offs AB has alluded to, surely a fire watch for the special events and higher level training for staff would mitigate concerns to a greater extent. Looks like the building is Victorian vintage, so may have been around for a long time without a fire history. 
If alterations were possible, I guess a protected stair could be provided, although Part M might cause issues at the foot of the existing stair in terms of lobby dimensions. 
In Portrush, for years, a student disco for 1500, was held every week on the first floor of a converted railway shed. The building was listed and failed to meet a number of fundamental fire safety measures that would be expected of a venue with such an occupancy characteristic. Still, the authorities were satisfied that a comprehensive fire watch was sufficient to allow the event to take place.

I guess full compliance should be sought where possible but it can’t be blind, otherwise who would need fire risk assessors? Nonetheless, I imagine nowadays, there will be few who will want to stick their neck out too much beyond the tick box.