Largish church with flat above

[SidM]

If there is a fire alarm with manual call points in place, what system would you put in place to protect the person in the flat on the first floor?

If, in the unlikely event, there is no alarm, would your answer change?

Please give reasons as I am a bit stuck with this one?

[John Webb]

Can you add more information, please?
Specifically:
1. Type of construction of building.
2. Structural separation between church and flat.
3. Access to flat - through church or separate?
4. Does building stand on own or is it part of a terrace or what?
5. Has the church had an FRA - or is that what you're doing at the moment?

[SidM]

Construction B.
Separation: Concrete floor
Access is through the church front door and immediately on the right is the flat door.
Building stands on its own.
Church is in the process of carrying out its own FRR but not yet complete.

[John Webb]

There are several things that need to be considered, in my opinion.
(a) Protection of the flat resident(s) from a fire in the flat
(b) Protection of the same from a fire in the church
(c) Protection of the church from a fire in the flat.

If there is no FA system installed anywhere, then cover the flat by at least a domestic style BS5839 Part 6 system.
As part of the FRA, consider what means of giving an alarm in the church is sensible and if such a system would be audible in the flat. If an electrical alarm system is thought to be required then consider covering the church and the flat on one system to BS5839 Part1.
The church insurers should be consulted as they may want to see suitable detection etc added for property protection; people living inside the building possibly pose the largest risk to the building?

[John Webb]

Additional to my and CivvyFSO's posts above, the separation between church and flat exit might be achieved by making a lobby at the church entrance so that the flat access door is parted from the body of the church.

[CivvyFSO]

ABD would suggest 60 mins between the church and the flat.

A risk assessment may suggest that 30 mins + linked AFD would suffice. Especially considering:

Church would have limited risk of a particularly fast growing fire.
High ceiling height (If it has one of course) in a church gives the smoke somewhere to go.
Limited risk of ignition in the first place.

A smart-ar*e may even consider linked AFD backed up with window escapes may suffice.

There is the property protection issue that insurers may be interested in, but depending on how the flat physically joins up with the church, the chance of a fire coming down the steps from the flat before the FRS dealing with it would be mimimal.

[CivvyFSO]

Additional to my and CivvyFSO's posts above, the separation between church and flat exit might be achieved by making a lobby at the church entrance so that the flat access door is parted from the body of the church.

There is often a lobby in place in churches. The problem is they sometimes have some rather nice stained glass windows there which people don't tend to want to replace with the pretty georgian wired stuff instead.

And to avoid any confusion, the "post above" that John refers to was deleted as I decided to rewrite the answer.

[SidM]

Thank you, it's what I thought but reassurances are required for insecure individuals.

[John Webb]

...And to avoid any confusion, the "post above" that John refers to was deleted as I decided to rewrite the answer.

I'd wondered what had happened there!