Residential Fire
Safety
Design and flexibility
London Building Control
13 Woodstock Street, Mayfair, London, W1C 2AG
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Residential Means of Escape
Houses
• The options
Apartments
Within apartments
• Open plan and Inner room provisions
• Gallery floors
• MOE - Floor is not more than 4.5m above GL
• MOE – Floor more than 4.5m above GL
The Common parts
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Houses
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• Single storey
• Two storey (top floor less than 4.5 metres from GL)
• Three storey (top floor more than 4.5 metres above
GL)
• Four storey
Houses
• Basements
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• Means of escape
Floors not more than 4.5m above GL
• Ground floor:
Direct access to an exit
or
Egress window for inner rooms
• First floor:
Houses 2 storey Egress window for habitable rooms
or
Internal protected stairway
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Means of escape – Internal planning
Floors more than 4.5m above GL
Protected escape route or open plan with
suppression and smoke protected access to first floor
escape window
Means of escape – Internal planning
Floors more than 7.5m above GL
Houses 3 & 4 storey Protected escape route plus alternative exit or
suppression
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Inner rooms ADB
• Acceptable as a kitchen, laundry, utility, dressing room,
bathroom or gallery
• Any room, not more than 4.5m above GL that has an
egress window
• An inner-inner room may be acceptable if it falls under
one of the above uses, and, not more than one door
Houses separates the room from an interlinked smoke alarm and
none of the access rooms are a kitchen
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Escape windows ADB
• Max height of cill 1100mm
• Min height 800mm or 600mm for a window in the roof
• Locks (with or without removable keys) can be fitted
with a release catch which may be child resistant
• They should remain in the open position to allow
persons escaping.
Basement lightwell escape
• Alternative escape via fixed non corrosive robust ladder
Houses (max 70 degree pitch) with stepped rungs and guarding
accepted.
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ADB options for three storey:
• Suppression to ground floor plus
• Separation of ground floor from first floor to allow top floor
smoke free access to a first floor escape window plus
• Enhanced fire detection grade D2 LD1 plus
• Kitchen remote from escape route
Or
• Smoke curtain to protect escape route from habitable
Houses – Open plan accommodation as far as the final exit plus
ground floor • Enhanced Fire detection grade D2 LD1
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Two storey house becoming three storey
Options for protected stairway ADB vol 1
• Replace existing doors to protect stairway with FD20
doors (including bathrooms if they include a heat
producing appliance)
Or
• if the existing doors are robust solid doors at least
House Loft 32mm thick and fit well in their frames these can be
Conversions retained with enhanced fire detection Grade D LD1
Notes. All glass in doors to be fire resisting in both situations.
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Apartments
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Internal planning where top floor is less than 4.5
metres from external GL
ADB vol 1
• Inner rooms are not an issue provided there are
suitable escape windows from those rooms
Within apartments
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Internal planning where top floor is more than 4.5
metres above GL
ADB Vol 1
• Maximum travel distance and layout guidance provided.
Open plan is okay but no inner rooms permitted
Within apartments • Gallery guidance
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Galleries ADB
Should have an alternative exit or egress window if
not more than 4.5m above GL
•If the gallery has neither of the above, it should
comply with the following
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Gallery Floors
Overlook 50% of the room below
Max 3m from foot of access stair to room door
Max 7.5m across gallery to access stair
Cooking facilities in the access room should be remote or enclosed
in FR construction
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Allowable variations without
calculated Fire Engineering solutions
Within apartments
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BS 9991: 2015
Open plan flats – Para 9.7
• Open-plan flats that have bedrooms as inner rooms
without alternative MOE, may be permitted provided that
the flat is fitted with a sprinkler system and a Grade D LD1
alarm
Within apartments
• Note Should not be used for sheltered housing or extra care housing
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BS9991 Open plan flats Conditions to
allow inner rooms
•Size should not exceed 16m x 12m
•Single level only [no gallery]
•Minimum room height of 2.25m
•The kitchen should be enclosed if the area of the flat
exceeds 8m x 4m
Within apartments
Note: Flats smaller than this should have cooking appliances remote from
the flat entrance
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BS9991 Open plan
flat size flexibility
with suppression
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Where the entrance floor level and the floors above/
below do not exceed 7.5m, provide protected stairway,
plus AFD in all habitable rooms and HD in the kitchen, or
a protected staircase and sprinklers throughout.
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Apartments Common Escape
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•Single staircase guidance
•More than one staircase guidance
Apartments common
escape
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Small single-stair buildings
• Top floor not more than 11m above GL
• No more than 3 storeys above GL
• Does not connect to covered car park
• Does not serve ancillary accommodation unless
Apartments common protected with ventilated lobby
escape • High level 1.0m2 OV at each floor, or single vent at
head of stair operated at building access level
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Apartments common
escape
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Single-stair but does not meet the
definition for small single stair?
Diagram 3.7
•Note common lobby corridor smoke venting
provisions and travel distances.
Apartments common
escape •BS 9991 provides flexibility on the travel distances in
ventilated areas
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BS9991
Max TD in
Common Part
15m with
sprinklers
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Smoke Venting Requirements
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Smoke control in lobbies
• Locate as high as possible with top edge at least as high
as the top of the stair door
• In single stair buildings, vents on the fire floor and at
the head of the stair, should be actuated by AFD in the
common parts
• Where there is more than one stair, the vent can be
Apartments common actuated manually, provided the vent at the head of the
escape stair is opened before, or at the same time, as the vent on
the fire floor
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Vent design
• Locate on external wall, free area 1.5m2
Or
• Discharge into vertical smoke shaft
Apartments common
escape
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Min cross-sectional area 1.5m2
Min dimension 0.85m in any direction
Opening at roof at least 0.5m above adjacent structures
within 2.0m horizontally
Extend 2.5m above ceiling of highest storey
Non-combustible material
Vertical shaft with nmt 4m at an inclined max 300
Apartments common Upon detection, the vent on the fire floor and at head
escape of staircase should open together (all other vents
should remain closed)
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Mechanical Smoke
Vents-Make up Air
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Other relevant guidance
• Sub divide corridors that connect 2 or more exits
• No storage in single staircase buildings
• Escape over roof OK if not the only route
• For buildings with nmt -3 storeys stairs can serve other occupancies
provided that they are separated with lobbies at all levels
Apartments common • If more than 3 storeys, should be ancillary, have independent
escape alternative escape and be lobbied
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B5 Access for fire fighting
Consider the height of the development
• The 45m rule applies from the pumping appliance
to every point within the flats
• The hose laying distance is taken up the pitch of
the flight and not vertically through the staircase
enclosure
• Providing a dry rising main may be a suitable
Apartments alternative
BS9991 allowances with suppression -Two storey 90m and
Three storey 75m
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Height of top floor above external ground floor
level 2020 changes
> 11 metres? –
Mandatory suppression for Residential
Non-combustible walls
> 18 metres? –
Dry Riser
Fire fighting shaft and lift required
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Fire safety during construction
The CDM Regulations 2015
HSG 168 guide
UKTFA 16 steps guide
Identify the risks and mitigate
Maintaining Fire Safety after occupation
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Housekeeping, maintenance procedures
and Tolerable Risk
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Specialised housing
• Cluster accommodation -BS9991
• Sheltered, Retirement, Assisted flats-BS9991
• Shared house -LaCors Guide
• Bedsits -LaCors guide
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Cluster
accommodation
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Cluster
accommodation
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LaCors Guide
35. Shared houses
• 35.1 There is no legal definition of a ‘shared house’ and so
this term can sometimes cause confusion. Whilst shared
houses fall within the legal definition of an HMO (see
Appendix 1, paragraph A.32) and will be licensable where
licensing criteria are met, it is recognised that they can often
HMO shared house present a lower fire risk than traditional bedsit-type HMOs
due to their characteristics.
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35.2 For the purposes of this guidance, shared houses are
described as HMOs where the whole property has been
rented out by an identifiable group of sharers such as
students, work colleagues or friends as joint tenants. Each
occupant normally has their own bedroom but they share the
kitchen, dining facilities, bathroom, WC, living room and all
other parts of the house.
HMO shared house
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All the tenants will have exclusive legal possession and
control of all parts of the house, including all the bedrooms.
There is normally a significant degree of social interaction
between the occupants and they will, in the main, have rented
out the house as one group. There is a single joint tenancy
agreement. In summary, the group will possess many of the
characteristics of a single family household, although the
property is still technically an HMO as the occupants are not
HMO shared house
all related.
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LaCors case
study example
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LaCors Guide
Bedsit-type HMOs
These are HMOs which have been converted into a number of
separate non-self-contained bedsit lettings or floor-by-floor
lets. Typically there will be individual cooking facilities within
each bedsit, but alternatively there may be shared cooking
facilities or a mixture of two. Toilets and bathing/washing
facilities will mostly be shared. There is unlikely to be a
communal living or dining room. Each bedsit or letting will be
HIMO Bedsits let to separate individuals who will live independently, with little
or no communal living between tenants. Each letting will have
its own individual tenancy agreement and there will usually be
a lock on each individual letting door.
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LaCors case
study example
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Heights and distances
9m 11m
Design Change Points
4.5m 45m
7.5m 50m 18m
15m 30m
20m
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Heights and distances
Design Change Points
Limits of small single stair building.
Max travel distance in flats 9m 11m 2020 changes-Sprinkler required above this height.
Non-combustible walls changes 2020?
Max lobby travel distance.
B5 max hose distance
Height where lobbies required 4.5m 45m
Limits of escape window use
Fire fighting shafts
Dry risers
Max travel distance with
smoke venting
7.5m 50m 18m Distance pump appliance to riser.
Wet riser Non combustable cladding. 2019 reqmt
Increased fire resistance 90 minutes.
Single direction travel distance 15m Flats sprinklers required pre 2020 changes
30m
with suppression added and increased fire resistance 120 minutes
B5 dead end distance limit 20m
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Any questions?
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Thank you for
listening
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Head Office:
London Building Control,
13 Woodstock Street, Mayfair,
London, W1C 2AG
Tel: 0207 099 3636
www.londonbuildingcontrol.co.uk
[email protected]Offices also in:
Chichester: 01243 882990
Manchester: 0161 660 0806
Welwyn Garden City: 01707 248611
Exeter: 01392 240770
