Fire exits in chapels

[Davash]

Hi,
I am carrying out Fire risk assessments on some chapels many of them listed buildings.Can anyone give me any advice on final fire exit doors.Most of them open inwards and do not conform to current building regs. Whilst the occupancy is usually between 20 to 50 people for most of the time, it can increase to 100 people+ on occasions such as weddings,funerals,etc.As it is a place of public assembly,should final exit doors open outwards? If so,how does this sit with listed buildings? Also, a vestry escape staircase leads down to a door that opens inwards but directly onto a busy road, so if the door opened outwards it would be dangerous. Appreciate any advice.

Davash

[PhilB]

Doors only need to open in direction of escape if necessary to ensure the safety of relevant people. Usually more than 50-60ish people should open in direction of escape but in your situation will probably be ok.

In my experience congregations at weddings and funerals do not cause too many problems with regards start up time i.e.getting dressed and collecting belongings, they're usually awake and mostly sober!!

You have to consider if a fire could grow to such an extent very quickly and produce vast amounts of smoke that would require outward opening doors. E-mail me a sketch of the premises and include details such as ceiling height and fire load and I will be happy to offer my opinion.

I would doubt wether the vestry exit will  ever have so many people stampeeding through it to necessitate its opening in direction of esacpe.

[kurnal]

You will find some good info on the following link- follow the fire safety link

http://www.cmainc.org.uk/

It doesnt answer your direct query tho- but a riskk assessment approach as suggested by Phil is the way to go.
Another way is to place stewards on doors at all times larger numbers are present to open the door before the main flow of people arrives, or to fasten the doors back in the open position when larger numbers of persons are present- only usually possible where there is an inner lobby to prevent draughts an heat loss.

[John Webb]

In the absence of a lobby, leaving the doors wide open inward (while ideal) has many practical problems of heat loss in winter months, possible excessive traffic noise in town centres etc. I have exactly this problem at my present local church. For the larger services where there are many visitors present there is usually at least one verger or sidesperson on duty. They remain at the back of the church and can open the doors if need be.
We are looking at remodelling the whole of the entrance arrangements over the next year or two. Subject to discussion with English Heritage (we are Grade II listed) we shall probably rehang the doors to open outwards to improve emergency exiting. We shall then have a small lobby inside to contain the draughts.