Shared Building

[Guest Rick]

Hello.

I help manage a charity shop which also has accommodation above it. The flat above the shop has its own entrance and cannot be accessed from he shop at all. We had a fire on our road recently and it worried me as If we ever had a fire in our shop, how would the people above know?

We have a fire alarm system in the shop, but should we link this in to the apartment above also?

Any help or advice would be most welcomed

[Tom Sutton]

It depends on the separation between your shop and the apartment above, if it achieves 60 minutes or more, then a link to the apartment is not necessary if it is less than 60 minutes then a link should be fitted to warn the tenant above. 

If you wish to err on the side of caution you could install a sounder in the flat, with a means of silencing the sounder located in the flat without affecting the remainder of the system the problem is getting access to the sounder for maintenance. I would also inform the occupier of the flat they should install a BS 5839 part 6 system depending on the layout of the flat.

[Guest Rick]

Thanks Tom. your help is much appreciated.