Communal Porch Way - Fire Risk

[Guest cjazz]

I live in a communal flat which comprises of a block of four flats, two up and two down.

The residents received a letter last week that informed the residents not to store wheelie bins in the porch entrance (see pic) due to it being a fire hazard and obstruction in the event of a fire. This was no problem except for one tenant, who decided that this should include everything in the porch way, like brooms, garden tools etc and took it upon himself to throw out all of the other tenants implements out of the porch way.

Because there is no other place to put these implements it is causing a problem for other tenants. The problem has been reported to the landlord who is looking into the problem.

I would just like to know the normal procedure for objects that are kept in communal areas? In the ideal world everything should be removed, but the risk of garden tools of catching fire or causing a problem is very minimal, even in the event of a fire.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

 

[Tom Sutton]

I understand the refuse bins are a fire hazard, an obstruction and a trip hazard hazard in the event of a fire so moving them to where they are now seems a good idea. The brooms and garden tools could be a trip hazard but if they were secured in brackets in the porch which can be purchased at any DIY store then I cannot see any reasons why they cannot be stored there, also looking into the building it looks like another door exiting the other side of the building so if anything prevented escape from this side use the other door. 

[AnthonyB]

What Mr.T said, a risk based approach is common sense. Having said that many Housing Associations insist on a "completely clear" policy as having anything stored (even if no risk) encourages people to store other riskier items and it's far easier to manage a 'nothing at all' policy than a risk based 'yes/no' policy.