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Posted By Nigel Souster
I've been asked by a manager at our sister site, if he can remove a fire exit. By remove I mean take the door out, brick up the hole, and place pallet racking in front of it. Obviously I would think this is only OK if there are plenty of escape routes available for people working in this area, and the fire risk assessment is updated.
My main question is has anyone done this before? Do we have to look into building regs etc? I have no construction experience so I have no idea if fire exits are placed for the size of a building or the number of people working in it. After all when the building was built it was essentilly a square box for general industrial purposes.
Thanks in advance,
Nigel
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Posted By CFT
Nigel
No in the first instance. They are there for a reason, if indeed it was mapped out correctly in the first place. To be precise a quick look at the 'as builts' with numbers of users would be useful to answer precisely.
CFT
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Posted By Barry Cooper
Nigel
Do a risk assessment, and consider number of persons working in the area and distance of travel. The position of the door may have been determined on what the building use was originally designed for.
This will determine whether you can brick up the doorway.
We did this in a warehouse, after considering the above. The Fire and Rescue had no problems with it.
Barry
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Posted By hedley ritchie
You can remove an exit if its superflous to requirements. One open plan building with one door and the distance of travel no greater than 25 metres is satisfactory for up to 60 persons. Ideally, exit doors should be diametrically opposed to one another. To calculate whether a door can be removed one has to add up the number of doors just say 3, minus the largest one,remaining 2 and the remaining doors should be able to evacuate all persons within that room. Depends on what the building is used for, a calculation needs to be done. example, a building 10m x 10m equals 100m2. If this was a club, the density factor is either .5 per person or 1m2 per person. basing it on 1m2 per person, 100 persons could occupy this building. Now the exits has to accommodate all these people. One standard exit of 800 mm will pass 100 persons. In this case, you will 2 exits.One exit is theoretically removed leaving one exit. This exit can pass 100 persons so 2 exits are ok.
Hope this helps.
Hedley
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Posted By Mitch
Agree with Hedleys point we have just renovated a workshop which was previously used for assembly and fibreglass manufacture within its own grounds. The refurbishment has included rerouting a public footpath to the rear of the premises where there were 3 emergency exits. We are using it for storage so I measured distances and reassessed and we have removed all 3 fire doors, 2 new ones were incorporated in the renovation.
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Posted By Nigel Souster
Thank you for all of your replies.
Nigel
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Posted By JCC
Stupid question, but if an emergency exit becomes used an a "normal" door is it ok to turn it permanently into a "normal" door?
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Posted By Mitch
Same applies as above if it meets the building reg's and satisfies your FRA it's OK. Alternatively fit an external handle and maintain (keep clear etc) as emergency exit.
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Posted By Dave Adams CMIOSH
I disagree - out of experience.
Removing a fire exit is a material change to a building and therefore must be considered under building regs. We tried to do a similar thing - we now have a fire exit door within the newly installed racking.
I suggest taking the 'better safe than sorry' option and clearing it with your friendly neighbourhood fire department first. If you are otherwise well-blessed with exits this should not pose too many problems.
Dave
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Posted By Mitch
Dave,
You disagree then quote the building reg's which is what I advised, as so far as consulting the local FB they will teel you it's your responsibility under the Fire Reform reg's
Mitch
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Posted By Dave Adams CMIOSH
Apologies Mitch, I wasn't disagreeing with you just the removal of a exit door without properly checking first.
Should have made that clear, I was just trying to prevent someone else going through the same hassle as I did.
Dave
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Posted By Fred Pratley
Guides are here.
http://www.communities.g...iresafety/firesafetylaw/
I always try to make sure that there are 2 escape routes whenever possible and take particular care about Fire Inception points and Hazardous/Flammable materials to try to ensure these are kept away from escape routes.
Don't forget that signage may need to be modified to suit.
It also would not hurt to ring the local fire station to see if they would be willing to do a quick familiarisation visit for the benefit of crews who would attend in the event of an emergency.
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