Out and about in a shopping centre this morning. Are others noticing an increase in the number of temporary/casual stalls within common areas? Many of these are positioned in close proximity to other temporary stalls or at the approach to a means of escape. Even taking into account the provision of sprinkler system and smoke control philosophy, it would appear that a number of these stalls individually or collectively (soft toys, wax candle stores etc) if involved in fire could result in a transition to flashover or directly impede a means of escape from the centre. It is most unlikely that the provision of these was not considered within the fire cert for the centre or that the centre management have considered a restriction of display/stored goods (fuel) so as to prevent the possibility of flashover. By way of the other thread concerning fire evacuation. While familiar with the basis of safety in the design of means of escape, I wonder how many shoppers would leave their trolley of shopping or bagged purchases in the event of fire? Not to mention the restriction caused by shopping till barriers and the trend towards a greater number of till lanes being closed in an attempt to force customers to use self-service. It would be interesting to review the evacuation philosophy document and calculations in order to see if the design/positioning of cash register lanes had been taken into account.