Occupancy of a room with inward opening doors?

[Guest Paul]

I have had some conflicting information on this subject. I have been asked to assess an auditorium with approx 140 seats, there are 4 exits, but all apart from one open inwards. Given that one of the doors would technically be taken out of the equation due to the fire am I right in assuming that each of the other door, although Inward opening can accommodate 60 persons so giving me an escape figure of  a minimum 180?

[AnthonyB]

As people won't naturally starburst to each exit equally there's a chance you will have an excess number using a door with a strong risk of crush and the door being blocked - the Station Nightclub in 2003 was an example - there were multiple exits but people went for the familiar ones, which opened inwards and so one of the leaves got shut under pressure and the other got blocked with bodies.

Also the doors cannot have panic fastenings if inward opening.

Options are:
- Re hanging doors

- Having Stewards at each door to be able to bolt them open in an evacuation

- Do nothing, accept it on occupancy against unit exit width only and keep your fingers crossed that there is never a full house evacuation under panic!