Omission of manual fire alarm call points at final fire exits.

[Rocha]

Hi everyone,
I have visited an office building, three storeys high, 23 000 sq ft, approx 100 office occupants which is served by three protected escape stairwells. All fire exits from the tenants demised floors onto the three fire escape stairs are installed with fire alarm break glass call points to ensure anyone evacuating passes a call point.  However there are no fire alarm break glass call points adjacent to the three final fire exits to open air at the bottom of the three stairwells.

I understand that BS5839 would specify them but looking at the siuation from a risk point of view, I am thinking that maybe this could be sufficient.  Taking into account that all three stairwells are afforded with afd, the occupants are all well aware of the building and its layout, the small nature of the building in height and that all fire exits from the tenants demised floors onto the three fire escape stairs are installed with fire alarm break glass call points.  If anyone was within a stairwell and discovered fire (highly unlikely) they would not be able to raise the fire alarm immediately upon exit but the afd would in turn detect the fire and warn the occupants of the building.

As long as I made these points clear in the FRA document, would this be OK in all your wise opinions??

Thanks to everyone in advance.

Rocha

[jokar]

Was the omission a variation of the standard at design or installation stage?  Dependent on the location of AFD in the staircase and the reasons for it being there you may be able to risk assess it out as all the tenants can pass a BGCP on their way from the demise.  I would imagine though that the prescriptive FRS staff would enforce against you to have them installed.

[Allen Higginson]

Would there be any chance of malicious activation from the outside if MCP's had been installed at the final exit doors?
This would be good reason not to install at the actual door.

[Phoenix]

Rocha,

Your argument sounds good.    

We only have a tiny snap-shot of the whole situation here but if you ensure that you can justify the absence of the BGCPs within the context of the whole fire risk assessment, that you tie up all loose ends and that it is quite clear that the installation of the additional BGCPs would be redundant and a waste of resources then no FRS will issue an enforcement notice to have them installed.

I would just say that if one of the staircases has a reception area within it, as many have, then it is likely that a BGCP should be installed at the exit from that staircase.

Stu

[CivvyFSO]

Rocha

From the commentary for call points from BS5839;

Manual call points need to be prominently sited, readily distinguishable from non-fire alarm call points and
need to be distributed such that, from any point in the building, it is impossible to leave the storey or the
building without passing a manual call point.

The point of having one by each exit to open air would seem to be to meet the above criteria. You have covered this by having one at each storey exit.

[Rocha]

Thanks everyone for your kind replies.  Just nice to sound things out every once in a while.

Rocha