Dry Riser outlets??

[g holland]

Hi

I am working on a proposal in Scotland to refurbished a hospital premises and am a bit a lofferheads with the guidance available. I am using the Scottish Technical standards and E10.4 (concerning the provision of ff facilities) states that in building up to 7.5m requires a dry fire main with oulet located at every department entrance. My problem is in understanding where to put the outlet, is it in the corridor or hospital street side of the department (i assume this would be the safest bet for fire service to be able to connect to) or can I place it just within the entrance to the department?

Does E10,4 mean that I have to have the outlet at each end of the department and if so what if each department leads directly into the adjoining one, no corridor so where would the safest place be then?

Would it be reasonable to fit a sprinkler system and ask for relaxation of the standard concerned because to get the req'd outlets would cause probs if each entrance. Could I have some within the street and rely on the fact that could get to all points within 60m? (might need to go through a few sub compartments to reach but could work evacuation policy to accomodate larger evacuation areas in case of smoke spread.

What do you suggest. All thoughts gratefully received!

[Bill.]

My reading of the Scottish Tech Stds are that the Hospital street needs the protection to enable it to be used as a holding area or evac strategy. That being the case the outlets should be only on the Hosp street at department entrances. A check can be made to ensure what areas of poss smoke logging would affect the Hosp street against the aforementioned holding area/evac strategy.

Outlets should always be located in a protected zone, ensures the ff's can access safely and then fight the fire with water medium at the ready.

It maight be poss to fight fire from outside entrance and maintain the street in which case might be able to argue against an outlet but really depends on the layout concerned.

Speak to your local Fire Officer and I'm sure they would be willing to help with advice in the first instance.

[Colin Newman]

The SHTM is deroived from the HTM used in England and Wales.  In the case of the latter, the requirement is to provide dry riser outlets within the hospital street (where a street is provided) at the entrance to each department.  

The hsopital street not only serves as a place of relative safety for evacuation purposes, but also provides a position for a fire fighting bridgehead.

Provided the dimensions of the storey are such that all parts of the storey can be reached within 60m of the dry riser outlet positions in the hospital street measured along a route suitable for laying hose, no further outlets are required.