Caravan used as temporary accommodation

[Eric90]

Hi, visited a small industrial unit office accommodation and mezzanine to the front of the building, warehouse / workshop to the rest of the unit L3 detection. There is a caravan sited in the workshop and when questioned a member of staff (as there was a mat and shoes by the door and obviously not just stored for the winter!) they replied "it is used for engineers to sleep in if they get home late after call-outs but not often".  Just need to know where / what I can look to quote regarding the issues that this poses as other vehicles are stored in there along with fuel etc! 😮

[stuartd01]

Hi,

The basic fire safety provisions for sleeping accommodation are adequate levels of compartmentation, a protected route to the final exit point, and (as the premises is being used as temporary sleeping accommodation), it will require an interlinked fire alarm system.

A caravan in a workshop is obviously not going to provide any of those basic provisions; it is essentially an inner-room arrangement with no fire safety control measures, within a high-risk environment. I also very much doubt that the organisations indemnity insurance covers them using their premises as temporary sleeping accommodation!

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-risk-assessment-factories-and-warehouses

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-risk-assessment-sleeping-accommodation