Lecture Theatre

[jjakajmr]

Please help!
I run a Uni and have a 200 seat lecture theatre, everything is up to scratch except...... I have 2 x red warning lights at the rear of the Lt/auditorium, no sounders as per legislation I believe Q Anyone know exactly what the legislation says? and If everone is facing the stage ie:showing a film no one can see the lights.  Can I have repeater lights at the front?
Regards John

[nearlythere]

The point of having a visual alarm only is to prevent a panic by large numbers of persons. The visual alarms are at the back of the auditorium so that stewards and ushers see it and not the public. When the visual alarm actuates the plan would be that the public would be ushered out through the escape doors in a calm fashion.

[wee brian]

I doubt there are any stewards or ushers in a uni - sounds like a wrong un to me.

[kurnal]

The legislation does not give specific instructions. The National guidance for places of assembly can be downloaded here http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/fire/firesafetyrisk7
and here
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/fire/firesafetyrisk

See page 53 of the guidance for smaller premises. The crux is that staff alarms are ok if there are trained stewards present at all times to respond to the staff alarm and initiate the evacuation if necessary. If you do not have stewards then you need a more conventional alarm system and means of conveying the meaning of the alarm to your customers - and to tell them what to do if the alarm sounds.

[Tom Sutton]

In a lecture theatre the students face the lectern. The lecturer faces the students and the red lights would be visible to him/her. Lights operate lecturer stops the lecture tells everybody to leave, orderly evacuation. What’s wrong with that?

[kurnal]

Yes TW you are right. I jumped on the theatre bit overlooking the lecture bit.
Nothing wrong with this provided the system works, the lecturer understands his role and the lecture theatre is not used for entertainments.

[Chris Houston]

I've been in plenty uni auditoriums when the students were waiting on the lecturer turning up.  Hardly fail-safe.

[nearlythere]

I doubt there are any stewards or ushers in a uni - sounds like a wrong un to me.

That the concept. Didn't comment if it was right or wrong, clever of daft. Just explained the concept.

[kurnal]

john
Sorry for not reading your post carefully last night- blame the shiraz.

To answer your question directly yes you could put lights anywhere in the lecture theatre. But before doing so you should ask yourself if this is the most appropriate system for raising the alarm of fire. It will work perfectly in the scenario TWSutton describes- but as Chris says if students arrive early, if the cleaner is working in there alone, if you use the theatre for a flim show or other entertainment, if at anytime there aren't sufficient responsible persons or stewards present  and able to command the attention of the persons present and tell them what to do the system will not work.

Is it appropriate to rely entirely on staff or - as elsewhere in the uni- should we place some responsibility on those present to hear the alarm and respond? Consistency would be good I think.

Some systems would enable the individual  sounders to be enabled/ disabled as required- if the system is recent and addressable- but this would be unwise unless you had a good setup to supervise and manage the fire alarm system, eg clued up security staff with constant access to fire alarm control panel.

You could consider a conventional alarm system for most scenarios I think. Similarly you could interface the alarm to the theatre audio systems to stop the "entertainment" if the alarm sounds.

[messy]

Help me out here.

I can understand why such a lights-no-bells system would be preferable for a cinema, theatre, nigthclub or similar. There could be many hundred punters in a single compartment - most of whom will be unfamiliar with the layout of the building and may include kids and older persons. In the case of the nightclub, the occupants might also be a bit wobbly.

The evac from all these buildings would be managed by numerous trained staff

I can't visualise a Uni lecture theatre have the same risk of panic.

The students are more likely to be familiar with the layout/exit routes and surely the average capacity of a lecture theatre would be smaller than the average theatre/cinema/nightclub. As has been said before, there may be only one member of staff - if any- to supervise the evacuation from this silent alarm.

So why the special treatment? Would not a conventional or voice sounder be suitable in many such environments??

Isn't this another example where a simple solution is as effective as a complicated one? (like a single mum finding a photo of the missing canoeist & wife via a simple google, whilst the professional investigators - with all their resources- sit in the dark for years)

[kurnal]

I agree with you messy. I think that is what I am suggesting in my last posting. Its one of the difficulties of working through a forum with only the information presented to work with. I rather assume that the staff alarm system was installed initially for a valid reason and that reason still applies. It needs a risk assessment to determine the best solution.

[Tom Sutton]

It looks like the lecture theatre has been likened to a entertainment theatre or cinema and the considered opinion was that if the audience hearing a fire alarm operating they would panic and create a situation like the Theatre Royal in Exeter. The two options would have been a fire record or lights they choose lights which would have been an acceptable solution years ago and could also be acceptable today.

However the latest guidance for Theatres and Cinemas suggests a standard fire alarm using sounders with provisos.

I can understand this if you consider the research done by Portsmouth Polytechnic for the 45/1992: Human Behaviour in Fires. One experiment showed about fifteen people in a room and a fire alarm sounder operated and nobody moved for about five minutes but as soon as one moved the rest followed. Another similar experiment, except when a person on the tannoy told them to leave the building they reacted immediately.

There was no panic and I believe that would be the same in a real situation providing their derrière was not burning and if this was the case it wouldn’t matter whether the fire alarm was silent or bells you would have one major panic.

I will go along with Kurnal.

[jjakajmr]

Thank you all very much for your input.
Regards John

[Tom Sutton]

Please help!
Q Anyone know exactly what the legislation says?

My response to your question would be safety legislation only tells what you are required to do, not how the achieve compliance. This is left to the guides, relevant to the subject and because it is risk assessment you do not need to use the guides if you have a solution that achieves the same ends. So if you are hoping for a document that will give you a direct answer it doesn’t exist and I am not aware of any guidance that covers this particular situation.