Rank: Forum user 
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We have two situations relating to fire doors at the moment that I could do with a little reassurance on.
Firstly, in one of our buildings a final exit fire door is in a room used as an office. Its a first floor office building with a permanent occupation of only two people on the 1st floor. The company wish to be able to lock the office door that leads to the fire exit for security purposes.
Given that theres only two people in the building are there two other exits from the 1st floor with good size stairways and exit doors I have no problem with this. The only conditions I have is that the door be no longer marked as an emergency exit and all diagrams/plans changed to reflect this.
The second are is a little more tricky. The building is a two storey office block with approximately 25 people at most working on the top floor at any one time. The building has four exits. Two are narrow staircases and two are external fire steps attached to the sides of the building.
The problem is that the two external stairways are accessed through offices which outside of office hours are locked. And to make matters worse one of these offices is the IT department who have a habit of locking their door even during the day time.
Now my thoughts on this are that due to the occupancy on a night time being negligible (may two cleaners for an hour) the fact that the office doors are locked isnt a problem provided the cleaners are aware of the fact. The one that potentially causes concern is the IT Department locking their door during the day time.
Im currently reviewing the fire risk assessment on this as the person who did it makes no mention of the above facts.
Thoughts welcomed
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Rank: Super forum user 
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In the first case, if the door is a good final escape, could it be fitted with a lock which can only be operated from inside, say with a push-pad? That would satisfy the security requirements and also allow the door to be used for escape.
With the locked offices, can these be fitted with an electro-magnetic keeper wired in to the alarm? This would release the lock in the event of a fire allowing escape. It's not that expensive a solution,
John
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Could you get locks fitted to the offices that are linked to the Alarm system, so that when the alarm goes off the doors are automatically unlocked?
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Rank: Forum user
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In the first case probably not. The way the buildings designed is that you go down a short corridor, theres the door to the office that we're looking at locking you enter the office and the fire exit is on the adjacent door.
We want to change the use of the room and the contents inside need to be secure so its not a problem of getting out of the room, more preventing people getting in.
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Rank: Forum user
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But having said that, theres no reason why both doors couldnt be fitted with a lock linked into the fire alarm.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Fair enough in the first case; I suggest you just check travel distances, width of alternative exit doors and things like that,
John
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Rank: Super forum user 
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"Firstly, in one of our buildings a final exit fire door is in a room used as an office. Its a first floor office building with a permanent occupation of only two people on the 1st floor. The company wish to be able to lock the office door that leads to the fire exit for security purposes.
Given that there's only two people in the building are there two other exits from the 1st floor with good size stairways and exit doors I have no problem with this. The only conditions I have is that the door be no longer marked as an emergency exit and all diagrams/plans changed to reflect this."
I would have said it is all down to the fire risk assessment but, by the sound of things, you have been let down by the fire risk assessor?
There is no fire certification any more so it's all down to the person in control of the premises to make this decision. If you feel the alternative exits are adequate then go for it and ensure all occupants are well informed, fire evacuation drill should be carried out to reinforce your revised fire training.
Why not seek further guidance from your local fire safty officer.
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Rank: Super forum user
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"The second are is a little more tricky. The building is a two storey office block with approximately 25 people at most working on the top floor at any one time. The building has four exits. Two are narrow staircases and two are external fire steps attached to the sides of the building.
The problem is that the two external stairways are accessed through offices which outside of office hours are locked. And to make matters worse one of these offices is the IT department who have a habit of locking their door even during the day time.
Now my thoughts on this are that due to the occupancy on a night time being negligible (may two cleaners for an hour) the fact that the office doors are locked isn't a problem provided the cleaners are aware of the fact. The one that potentially causes concern is the IT Department locking their door during the day time."
Tricky this one.
IT Dept locking the door - not a good idea as they may evacuate through the fire escape forgetting to unlock that door. They are not being fair!
External steps can be dodgy especially in winter time but I think it best to keep that option. 25 people all trying to evacuate through one exit (you have to consider one exit obstructed by the fire) although not a large number of people it would still be best to have more than one exit available at all times.
The ideas for door locks above are all decent and could be considered.
I do not have personal experience of your premises so that's the best I can do at present.
By the way why did the fire risk assessor not mention your exits? Who was it, employee or consultant?
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