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FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS => Fire Safety => Topic started by: GB on June 25, 2010, 01:38:43 PM
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ADB V2 2.30 states that stores and other ancillary accommodation should not be within protected corridors forming part of the only common escape route from a flat on the same storey as the store.
Does that mean if you come out of a flat say in an unventilated corridor as ADB Diagram 8.b, you can have a store opposite you with no lobby protection and that would be acceptable within ADB as you effectively have two way escape albeit down 15m unventilated corridor (phew that was a long sentence :)
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No. Paragraph 2.30 doesn't make any distinction between whether there is one or two ways out of the common escape corridor. The unventilated corridor sections you refer to in diagram 8b are the "only common escape routes" from the flats they serve. Therefore, 2.30 specifically recommends against the situation you present.
Stu
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I agree with Stu. However many buildings containing flats- especially where an existing building has been converted to flats- do not comply with this recommendation. If the original posting relates to the design of a new building the answer is simple. The building design should conform to the ADB.
But if using the ADB as a benchmark to inform your judgement whilst carrying out a risk assessment of an existing building it is not so clear cut. Then it may be reasonable to measure the variation from benchmark guidance against other factors- how many staircases, how many floors, how many flats, one or two way travel distance, distance of travel, degree of fire separation, ventilation, use of store, presence of ignition sources, layout of flats served by the corridor- lobby approach or not? In taller buildings has the design of the fire fighting shaft taken advantage of the relaxation which in some situations allow the omission of the fire fighting lobby?