Posted By Cathy Ricketts We have recently taken on a rental lease on an office building - the building is drop level - 5 levels at the back and two at the front. At the front we have one floor the floor above is flats (purchased on a lease agreement). At the back we have a further two floors and then below us is a lock up which extends beyond the back of the property with a flat roof. The door of the office kitchen opens on to the flat roof (there are no rail supports around the roof). The air conditioning contractor was told by the landlord that the roof was substantial enough to hold the airconditioning unit and this is now in place on the roof. This is the only other exit from the building other than the main door at the front of the building The fire exit route is across the roof and then to put in place an aluminium ladder which for the rest of the time lies flat on the top of the flat roof. I have spoken to the local fire safety officer who wasnt overly helpful and has just suggested that I only use this exit as a last resort. I have several concerns - can I stop people accessing the roof by using a fire tie on the back door (it is a very attractive smoking area as it overlooks a park - also concerns that cigarette smoke will then be drawn in to a/c unit. The roof has obviously been used for this purpose in the past as there were a number of cigarette butts on the roof when we took on the building Do we need to put on edge supports given that the a/c unit is now on the roof - however this does have some protection from an adjoining building If I allow staff to access the roof I presume I will need to get some sort of letter from the landlord/tenant re soundness/maintenance of roof. Also concerned about having to train predominately female staff to put ladder in place in case of fire and descend ladder as presume this will need to form part of fire training. Ladder cannot be put permanently in place because park area regularly used by young people who may then climb onto the roof and also because of building security. There are also budgetary constraints as lease is short term Has anyone had similar problems - can you help?

Posted By Cathy Ricketts What is an AHU (sorry to be dim)

Posted By Kevan Horne If you have a low occupancy and the maximum distance to an exit is 18m it may be that 1 escape route is fine. If you use a flat roof this is only allowed if the roof is part of the same building, all openings on the escape route within 3 m are fire resisting, the route is adequately defined and guarded by walls or barriers (Building Regs Approved Document B section 6.35). The exit route will need maintained emergency lighting. To cap it all the ladder is not permitted anyway, external stairs are OK if they meet Approved Document B section 6.25. Don't forget the needs of people with disabilities! Concentrate on ensuring that the escape route to the main door is protected with self closing half hour fire resisting doors, zero burn rate walls, no soft furnishing in the route and an free from electrical appliances, portable heaters, photocopiers, recycling boxes, Christmas trees (unless fire retardant) - get a copy of 'Fire Safety - An employer's guide' for £10, it will help you with the fire risk assessment you need to conduct. Hope this helps. Kevan

Posted By Brian Hagyard Cathy. Fire escape aside, any access to this area sounds like it will be covered by Work at Height Regulations 2005. Provision of guardrails may be simplest solution but may be very expensive. If you restrict access to essential personnel only (i.e. servicing the ac unit) then some other access system (e.g. access from cherry picker or similar) or fall prevention system may be “reasonably practicable”. You need to do our old friend a risk assessment on the work, and then with the contractor decide on a reasonable solution. Good luck. Brian.