Hi all!

The company I work for have recently taken over management of a block of flats that includes a commerical unit on the ground floor as part of the freehold. The commerical unit have a fire alarm installed however the block of flats does not, and the fire risk assessment for the block has stated that a Grade A LD2 system is required and must link between the commercial unit and the block.

Thinking practically, we do not think that the two areas should be on the same system (the commercial unit is a bar) as both the unit and the residents would need ready access to the panel. Access is segregated with both having doors opening onto the footpath. We definintely agree that a fire in the commerical unit could impact the safety of the occupants inside the resedential areas and both need to be aware of any fire or smoke in the adjoining area. We are thinking that recommending installing independant detectors inside the commerical unit that link the residential and commerical unit could work but we are unsure if that is the best way to go.

Any help on this is much appreciated.

Regards

Simon

Hi SafeKiwi,

This is something that is regularly asked. If a fire alarm system is required (hard for me to say without seeing the building and having all the details) then I would look to have something such as the following:

Automatic detection in the shop using smoke detectors & break glass call points, with a heat detector in the floors above also linked in. This would prevent burn toast and other false alrms from the upper floors activating the panel downstairs and disrupting business in the commerical unit, but if heat was detected, then this would activate the panel and alarm.

wit regards to the flats above, you could have sounders from the commercial units alarm panel in the communal stair/lobby area of the flats, alerting residents of an alarm  in the commerical premise below. Each self contained flat would also be required to have wired in detector/s with a battery back up, alerting people in that specific flat of fire/smoke. Consideration should also be given on how people in the commercial area would be alerted of a fire above, especially if the building is of old construction etc, so there is certainly a posibillity of a fully integrated alarm being required throughout.

A lot of this does depend on the fire resistance of floor seperation and some other factors such as the type of entrance doors the flats have ie FD30 or 60. The above may not be relvent at all to you, but is something I  have done for commercial & residential set ups before.

long winded, but I hope it is of some help.