Tall buildings, single staircase

[AFD]

This is where FA's have to carry out their duty, and for a building totally reliant on 'engineered solutions with a need for meticulous management' they should issue an 'alterations' notice under the RRfsO.

[CivvyFSO]

That is indeed going to be the case in these buildings.

[kurnal]

But is this not a potential major failure of the Building Act  and its enforcement? I see the need for the alterations notice in this case but this will only paper over the cracks. If such a recent building cannot be safely occupied without the need for a notice then in my opinion there should be an investigation into how the design came to be approved in the first place. Is there any mechanism for this to be done under the Building Act?

[CivvyFSO]

On a risk basis, I can see that if it was left as designed the risk would be reasonably low. We need to ensure it is left as designed. The 'alterations notice' should possibly be made part of the completion certificate. i.e The owners/occupiers should be made aware that they cannot mess about with the facilities from day 1 without any intervention needed from the Fire Authority. Could be made standard for any engineered approach deviating from guidance.

(FWIW, The door they installed also messed up the smoke ventiliation system. You ended up with an air inlet that could not move smoke anywhere as the door was installed between the inlet and the window vent.)

You never know, it might take a disaster and some good old reactive legislation to sort the issue out. (Or a disaster or close call followed by appropriate action against whoever is to blame.)

The new addition to ADB with regards the passing on of fire safety information would have avoided all this, so hopefully in the future this will not happen.

[CivvyFSO]

Also FWIW...
The building actually used to have 2 staircases, so they went to considerable trouble to get that extra little bit of floor space. But think about it, the staircase being removed could be the difference between creating a studio flat and creating a 2 bed apartment, cost difference... About 30k per flat... 9 floors x 30k... These people will pay alot of money to get staircases taken out if we are allowing it. All you need is a 'friendly' AI.