Stu as I said it was many moons ago, the 70’s and 80,s to be precise. We never checked individual stages we simple checked the time from the initiation of the alarm and waited at the assemble point for the last person to arrive or the roll call to be completed. I haven’t trod the boards for many years and unlikely to do so therefore improving things is a non-starter.
But I am sure things have improved considerable as the result of such things as fire marshals initiating people to get moving, most probable as the result of the research done for “Human Behaviour in Fires” which proved people need a kick up the backside to get moving, because it showed people waiting 5 minutes before responding to the alarm. I guess this prompted competent persons to be included in the RR(FS)O.
I fully agree to the comments about there being no set time for evacuation and it all depends on the situation in each individual case. Also my understanding of BS 9999 is it provides an advanced approach to in the design, management and use of buildings. Much of the guidance in BS 9999 is based on fire safety engineering principles. Consequently this will involve ASET and RSET, which for best results is all about good data, which appears lacking at the present, according a paper at the NIST international conference. Check out
http://fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/fire08/PDF/f08011.pdf therefore can BS 9999 be trusted and how did they calculate the width of staircases, did they use fire safety engineering principles which need to be treat very cautiously?
Colin, maybe but how many people were dying in fires in the 70’s (1000+), you are a victim of your own success.
