Kitchen in cellar of HMO

[MC]

Hello, i have a client who owns a HMO, he has a kitchen and two other rooms in the cellar

The kitchen dimensions are 3 x 3 metres
The first cellar room is 3.6 x 2.4 metres
The second cellar room is 3.8 x 2.5 metres
The corridor leading down to the cellar (which is off the kitchen) is approx 4 x 1 metres

The ceiling height in the cellar is 1.95 metres

He has ben informed by the council there isn't sufficient means of escape from the cellar in case of fire...there is a small window...but the only existing means of escape is through the kitchen which isn't ideal as this is the most likely source of fire...

He has been told that installing a water misting system in the kitchen , 2 x Cellar rooms and the corridor leading down to the cellar would be a solution, but the cost will be high,

Any advice on  other solutions

Regards

MC

[devon4ever]

Its always difficult trying to envisage the situation without a photo or floor plan, but I will offer the following; you mention a small window in the kitchen, is it possible that an exit door could be provided at this window opening to ultimate escape at ground level?

I take it that the premises is provided with functional & apprpriate AFD

Water mist is not an entire solution as it is designed to contain a fire, (although experience shows that most systems will succesfully extinguish a small fire). By virtue of a basement, the smoke, heat and flame is trying to use the same escape route as the occupants, (upwards), has any thought gone into providing natural or mechanical venting in event of fire that directs the products of combustion away from the means of escape?

Finally, a bit radical, but the basement is not the best place for the kitchen in a HMO, can it be sited elsewhere, (this option may be cheaper than installing a water mist system)

Hope this is of some use

[MC]

Thank you

[David Rooney]

We look after an HMO and the owner has a fully operational pottery business complete with Kilns in the basement. Admittedly there is a door to escape but the FRS only required and L2 detection system installed troughout....

[CivvyFSO]

It is not the kitchen being in the cellar that is the issue really, it is the rooms leading onto it that have to escape through it. If they are not bedrooms then could it be knocked through to be an open plan kitchen/diner/living room and the actual cooking facilities moved a reasonable distance away from the steps up to ground? The main issue then is creating fire resistance between this room and any escape routes above it.

As Devon said, it is hard to envisage everything without plans/photos. We don't know what the people who escape from this area are escaping up to, it may just lead up into another living room, or a protected hallway. Both are clearly very different scenarios.