FireNet Community
FIRE SAFETY => Fire Risk Assessments => Topic started by: Tadees on November 12, 2015, 05:01:14 PM
-
Do taller blocks experience more fires on ground floor than on any of the higher floors due to the fact that they have more ancillary rooms and/or because vulnerable tenants are housed on the ground floor? What's the reason, becuase the guide states this as a fact?
-
Where does it say that Tadees? I must have missed that!
-
Paragraph 13.3, Page 21
"There is evidence to suggest that taller blocks experience more fires...than blocks of lower height. However, more fires occur on the ground floor than on any of the higher floors."
-
Do taller blocks experience more fires on ground floor than on any of the higher floors due to the fact that they have more ancillary rooms and/or because vulnerable tenants are housed on the ground floor? What's the reason, becuase the guide states this as a fact?
Taller blocks = more deprived areas or less feeling of 'ownership' of the public spaces = higher incidence of arson?
-
Do taller blocks experience more fires on ground floor than on any of the higher floors due to the fact that they have more ancillary rooms and/or because vulnerable tenants are housed on the ground floor? What's the reason, becuase the guide states this as a fact?
Taller blocks = more deprived areas or less feeling of 'ownership' of the public spaces = higher incidence of arson?
Possibly.
-
It is probably based on IRS (FDR1) data and therefore flawed, due to inconsistent, unreliable recording. However rubbish fires could account for the statistical anomaly. Rubbish bins are normally on the ground floor. Rubbish chutes can terminate on the ground floor etc
-
Thanks Tadees. As others have pointed out without further information the comment is no help whatsoever, and does not help in fire risk assessment or prevention terms. Nevertheless, if the comment is correct there are a number of forseeable potential reasons for this, refuse chambers, plant rooms, unauthorised storage at the base of the staircases, mailboxes, arson attacks are easier at the main access level.
Soap box time. I have seen a number of new blocks with the same design mistake over the past few years, and the mistake does not get picked up by less experienced AIs or fire officers etc. There should be a direct exit to open air from the base of the staircase. This was explicit in the old CP3 document where diagrams illustrated the point, although it is covered in ADB it is not set out clearly and is a factor often overlooked.
I have seen a number of new builds in which from the base of the staircase it is necessary to pass flat entrance doors and ancillary accommodation in order to reach the exit. As a consequence on the upper floors the staircase is protected by two fire doors but on the ground floor there is only single door protection to the final element of the fire exit route.
I have even seen this in buildings with fire fighting staircases in which access to the fire fighting stairs is compromised by passing through or adjacent to ancillary accommodation. In other words the means of escape at ground floor level is at a lower standard than on the upper floors. If the comment in the guidance is correct then this increases the fire risk.