Fire escape regulations

A key safety element of a fire situation is to allow people the maximum amount of time possible to escape the fire. Fire safety regulations are developed with this factor in mind. The stringency of the regulations often depends on the time needed to safely escape the environment of a fire. 

Depending on the requirements of local fire officers, statutory regulations and insurance bodies (or any other documents or bodies having jurisdiction), there may well be a need to address the clearance of smoke from escape routes, the control of smoke spread generally and the removal of smoke during and after firefighting activities. 

Recently, two significant developments have raised the profile of fire toxicity. The first is the development of the steady-state tube furnace (SSTF) (ISO TS 19700 2006), which has been shown to replicate the toxic product yields corresponding to the individual stages of fires. The second is the acceptance of performance-based fire design as an alternative to prescriptive fire regulations, so that architects can specify the components within a building based on a safe escape time, within which toxic and irritant gas concentrations must not approach a lethal level (ISO 13571 2007). 

The 3rd Amendment to the 17th Edition of the lET Regulations introduced a new Regulation 521.200.1, requiring robust support of wiring systems in escape routes so that they will not become compromised or collapse in the event of a fire. 

Consumer units - Recent fire statistics have shown that a large number of domestic fires involved plastic consumer units as a source of the fire. Consumer units are often located at the entrance or exit door or under stairs, raising the possibility that a fire starting as a result of faulty wiring could spread to coats or other household items and block the emergency escape routes. Regulation 421.1.200 now requires that consumer units be manufactured from non-combustible material, for example metal, or be enclosed in a non-combustible enclosure. Consumer units and switchgear must comply with BS EN 61439-3. 

Wiring systems in escape routes - An escape route is the route to follow for access to a safe area in the event of an emergency. Regulation 521.200.1 now requires that wiring systems in escape routes be supported such that they will not be liable to premature collapse in the event of a fire. This will restrict the use of plastic clips and ties, and PVC trunking and conduit as the sole means of support in these areas. Cables in escape routes must be supported or restrained by metallic, fire resistant supports. 

The Factories Act 1961 was in the main a consolidating Act, bringing together earlier Factories Acts. The major provisions with regard to health, safety and welfare continue in force but those dealing with fire prevention and means of escape, administration and enforcement, first aid and reporting of accidents and industrial diseases have been repealed by regulations made under the HSW Act. 

In the United Kingdom many of the offshore regulatory requirements are handled through the Prevention of Fire and Explosion, and Emergency Response (PFEER) Regulations. They require that duty holders provide adequate arrangements for escape, evacuation, rescue, and recovery of persons involved in an incident. 

Safety assignment focuses on loss of containment, etc. so it can be slightly modified to include uncontrolled event, and accident can be caused by a sudden occurrence (an uncontrolled event) causing serious danger or harm to relevant person(s), at any risk community, property or environment immediately or at a later time. This derived from major hazardous facility (MHF) regulation. Here occurrence includes escape, spillage, leakage, implosion, explosion, and fire. This is further to major accident defined in Clause 3.1.2. 

Where a building has been built or altered in accordance with the Buildings Regulations a Statutory Bar applies to the Fire Authority which prevents them from requiring additional structural or other work relating to means of escape prior to issuing a fire certificate. 

Secondly, public acceptance of transport accidents as an inevitable price of mobility had been replaced by an unpreparedness to tolerate major accidents without recrimination, blame and litigation. Although the companies which caused accidents were mainly in the firing line, safety regulators did not escape scrutiny and units such as the HMRI began to be challenged over the closeness of their relations with the industry regulated and the lack of prosecutions initiated by them. 

The building regulations define building work as the erection or extension of any building or its services. The definition includes alterations to buildings if the alteration affects the structure, the means of warning and escape, internal fire spread, external fire spread access and facilities for the Fire Service and access and facilities for disabled people. 

The definition of confined space is very wide and includes any place such as trenches, vats, silos, pits, chambers, sewers, wells or other similar spaces which because of their nature could give rise to a specified risk . Specified risks are defined in Regulation 1. They include injury from fire or explosion loss of consciousness through a rise in body temperature or by asphyxiation drowning or from free-flowing solids causing asphyxiation or preventing escape from a space. 

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