Posted By Barry Cooper Learned colleagues, another fire safety question The fire safety guidance for educational premises quotes capacities for route widths 750mm wide, and that the minimum width for schools is 1050mm. In a friends private school in an old Victorian house, some routes are only 650mm wide and one door even 600mm. Most doors are only 700mm clear width. Would he have to widen these routes or doors. Some would entail moving walls. Also if when calculating overall escape route capacity, we assume the widest is not available, then the remaining route would be inadequate. Your views would be welcome. Barry

Posted By Ken Taylor Presumably the building is an existing registered independent school and had planning approval. The guidance is for guidance and isn't a retrospective building regulation - but all non-standard features will have needed to be considered in the fire risk assessment - particularly with regard to means of escape and occupant capacities. Whilst there won't be a former fire certificate, it is highly likely that the fire authority will have visited in the past and responded to these issues and may also have recently asked for a copy of the school's fire risk assessment. However, further advice from them could be useful in these Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order days. Good compartmentation, protected routes and automatic fire detection (to provide the earliest warning of fire) can prove useful measures in buildings of this nature.