Ireland Legislation - Factory Fire Escape Issue

[reece]

Hi all, first post.

This may be of some help

Extract from the Irish Building Regs 2006 TGD B
 
Where people can go onto the storage tiers in the course of their normal use, reduced levels of fire
resistance in the construction of the raised storage platforms (or even little fire resistance so as to
permit an unprotected steel structure) may also be acceptable provided the following conditions are
satisfied:

(a) the structure has only one tier and is used for storage purposes or access to plant or machinery only;

(b) the number of persons likely to be on the floor at any one time is low and does not include members of the public;

(c) the layout is such that any persons on the floor would be readily aware of any fire starting at the lower level; and

(d) at least one stairway serving the raised floors,platform or tier discharges within 3 m of an exit from the
building.

Features of layout or design that would allow occupants to be aware of a fire starting at the lower level include the use of perforations in the floor of the structure, or leaving a space between the edge of the platform and the walls of the room housing it, to make the smoke and the sounds of the fire obvious.

If the floor is more than 10 m in width or length, an automatic fire detection and alarm system should be
used to provide sufficiently early warning.

[William 29]

The point you make is a valid one and similar to Approved Document B 2000 version section 8.8 "raised storage areas" as they are termed.  The problem is from what is described the floor is not being used as a storage area; persons are working on the floor.  It should therefore comply with the fire safety requirements of a floor and would have done if gone through building regs approval?

I would suggest that the starting point now should be the conducting of a suitable fire risk assessment to determine if the current risk is acceptable or if further fire safety provisions are required as already mentioned, AFD or an alternative staircase.

[muggins]

if it did go through building regs approval...
a lot of modifications like this in ireland are carried out without any type of permssion - it is a self regulating system here, and up to the architect to certify that something complies. Obviously, if no architect, no certification.  Many people arent aware of the need to have a fire safety cert either.  The lack of compliance shoudl be picked up by a professional during a safety inspection as you did, or during the sale when people start looking for the paperwork