Materials under escalator

[muckychimney]

Hello, bit of a strange one so here goes...

A store that I look after has asked me to put up shelving in a largeish cubbyhole underneath the store escalator, I said no way thinking back to the Kings Cross fire and I also sought advice from our in house H&S team who also said no. However the store are pushing this again, so I was hoping someone might know of some legislation that I can push back at them and say no to it once and for all.

The room itself is difficult to access as its through a non fire door which has a high step into it, the door is only about 18 inches wide, inside there is no fire curtain between the suspended ceiling in the shop and the store ceiling, there is also a mains distribution board inside there which would be a point of ignition as well as the lighting in the open ceiling void. One bonus is there is auto fire detection in there and a sprinkler.

Cheers.

[Tom Sutton]

Kings Cross was an entirely different situation and the same risks would not apply to this situation, but what is being proposed is not acceptable.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 article 8 lays a duty on the Responsible Person to take such "general fire precautions" as will ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of any of his employees or relevant persons.  The "general fire precautions" are explained in article 4 which says (a) measures to reduce the risk of fire on the premises and the risk of the spread of fire on the premises.

Adding combustibles in an area where there is is a likely source of ignition would be contrary to those articles and a cupboard holding electric equipment should not be used for storage of combustible items, as you have already explained above.