Author Topic: 60 people in a room  (Read 13037 times)

Offline Phoenix

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 677
  • Get a bicycle. You will not live to regret it
    • MetaSolutions (Fire Safety Engineering) Ltd.
Re: 60 people in a room
« Reply #15 on: June 14, 2015, 12:25:53 PM »
kurnal makes a very good point.  Provided that the two routes are fire separated (and if they're not you could probably compensate with AFD) you're only area of concern is the means of escape from all locations within the room to the doors from the room. 

The objective, where there is a single door, is to get the last person out of the room in good time before the fire starts to be able to threaten those people making their escape.  To achieve this objective:

You have to have very early means for discovering the fire and for raising the alarm in the room - I would think that with 80 people in the room it would be unlikely if not impossible that a fire not be discovered immediately after ignition. 

You will need to ensure that the evacuation signal is spread very quickly - if there are functions taking place you will need facilities for killing music instantly, broadcasting the need to evacuate and perhaps raising light levels.

You shouldn't have combustible items near the exit doors - for example, keep coats in a designated area away from the doors.

You should have suitable policies, procedures for people with impaired mobility.

You do not have to discount one of the exits as they are being treated as a single exit and to discount one would be to discount both (which would be ridiculous - and precisely what the precautions I'm listing aim to avoid).  Therefore, you can add to your argument that the two doors will give twice the flow rate out of the room and so the room will empty twice as quickly compared to a room with only a single door.  Indeed, you might expect 80 people to evacuate through two doors in less time than 60 people would take through a single door.  It would be hard to imagine it taking longer. 

Offline Tom Sutton

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2287
Re: 60 people in a room
« Reply #16 on: June 14, 2015, 08:00:02 PM »
the 60 max rule, a rule that seems to be treated as sacrosanct by many in fire safety.

If they do they are living in the last century, of prescriptive fire safety, the twenty first heralded the age of risk assessment and although I accept that these rules can be benchmarks, they need to wake up and smell the coffee.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2015, 10:51:56 AM by Tom Sutton »
All my responses only apply to England and Wales and they are an overview of the subject, hopefully it will point you in the right direction and always treat with caution.