Fire Resisting Furniture for within a Protected Route

[Messy]

I have a very large but unsprinklered office building with a occupancy of several thousand. The design of the building has created wasteful large staircase landings within protected routes. Until now as you would expect, there has been a zero tolerance regarding combustibles being used or stored in these areas.

The RP now wants to create seated areas to act as meeting spaces on these landings. I suggested metal furniture and a trail set of (hideous & uncomfortable) furniture was supplied on one floor. The trial has gone badly! The RP now wants to have 'warmer' timber furniture and is suggesting researching the use of FR coatings on timber furniture - including glulam type furniture.

So, is there any solid timber furniture suitable for use within a protected route?
Or perhaps can anybody recommend a coating, process or method of treating existing furniture or virgin timber/ply if we go out and get bespoke seating built?

Any suggestions would be gratefully received

Specifying fire resisting materials - as you can see - is not an area I am familiar with!

[Daffodil]

Would you allow a vending machine or a photocopier in these staircases? 
I would guess that there is more than one staircase? The building has been designed to cater for evacuation of the occupants in the event of discounting a staircase?
The chances of a fire occurring in a staircase is remote (depending on ignition sources and fuel loading).

It doesn't answer your question but is there a need to do anything other than it conforms to current furniture regs?

The problem comes around limiting the amount of furniture and ensuring it doesn't become a permanent workspace. As many places have discovered if you allow the pot plant in the staircase it escalates, its easier to have a zero tolerance.  You may have considered this already, apologies if you have.

[wee brian]

Anything comfy will burn. People bring stuff with them - this burns too. People cause fires.

Normal furniture regs reduce the risk but they still present a significant fire load once you get them going. You could go down the route of adopting the same spec they use in airliners but its best just not to do it.

[kurnal]

Messy I know you will have already done this but a risk assessment may be helpful in evaluating the level of risks. If a fire did occur in one of the staircases would it put relevant persons at risk? The evaluation of risk would include  number of staircases and their disposition, the number of staff and their total travel distances, the separation of those staircases from the adjoining accommodation, provision of detection, ventilation  or suppression systems. The rule about protected routes being sacrasanct is a good, safe fall back to use and absolutely essential in a building with limited staircase capacity but it can be a simplisitic approach- it  sounds like your building will probably have a number of staircases. It might be useful to remember that the design codes and building regs allow for  many buildings to have accommodation staircases completely open to one or more floors often with a much higher fire loading than an office. Is a bit of furniture in an enclosed staircase that is not critical to means of escape a bigger risk than an open staircase in a retail unit?

[wee brian]

the trouble with a fire in a stairway is that the whole design is based on the assumption that there won't be one.

How does the population of the building know not to use that particular stairway?

Do we wait until they have all moved to it, seen the smoke and turned away - walking into their colleaguse coming towards the stair...

[Mike Buckley]

To some extent I would disagree with Brian, the assumption when working out the occupancy of a building, floor or room is that one of the exits is not available, hence people are going to have to turn round and go another way.

[kurnal]

Hi Brian I am not saying putting furniture in a staircase is a good idea. I am saying the risk needs evaluating to identify the necessary response. Lets face it reception areas, seating areas, displays, cafes, UPSs, file servers are very commonly found in staircases in office buildings. So the risk assessor has to determine what steps are needed. Its easy with illicit storage - zero tolerance -  a little harder with seating areas and the like but when you encounter things like file servers and UPS systems its not so easy to have them moved.  Sometimes the staircase can be designated an accommodation staircase but as in most cases fire safety design incorporates one storey exit and one staircase being discounted due to the effects of fire then the population has to make decisions as to which route to use.


  

[Fishy]

I do think Wee B is right - it's a very different matter discounting a staircase because it's been blocked by a fire compared to discounting it because there's a fire in it!  In 99% of cases people will not know where the fire is unless they can see it - and they might even choose to use the staircase if all they can see when they open the door is a little smoke.  By the time they're in it, it'll be too late.

The need for sterile protected staircases is one of the cornerstones of fire safety design, & when we've gone to the trouble of providing them people really shouldn't be compromising it by installing 'stuff' within them.  I know there's always room for risk-based arguments to the contrary, but at the end of the day there are always alternatives to installing vending machines, photocopiers, UPS etc, etc in the one place in a building where you don't want a fire - of any size!  Haven't even mentioned the issue of doing it if you have a disabled refuge in the same space...

[Tom Sutton]

Didn't Moreton in Marsh have seating areas in the staircases or where they separated?

[Demontim]

The scene of many an infamous landing party as I recall.

[Tom Sutton]

It doesn't answer your question but is there a need to do anything other than it conforms to current furniture regs?

Just to clarify the situation, in non-domestic premises there is no regulation regarding furniture.

The contract sector, whether it be hotels, offices, schools, hospitals or care homes, the key is ensuring that adequate fire prevention procedures are in place which is an essential safety requirement.

Where fire safety for domestic furniture is defined by legislation, the requirements for the contract sector are, at first sight, more complex.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order requires that there are fire risk assessments in place for all buildings used for non-domestic activities. However, it is not always clear how these relate to furniture. The Fire safety of furniture and furnishings in the contract and non-domestic sectors clearly shows how furniture should be considered in a risk assessment, and how this impacts on different types of usage, together with the obligations of manufacturers, suppliers, specifiers and end-users.

The guide http://www.fira.co.uk/document/fira-contract-flammability-guide-october-2011pdf.pdf

[Messy]

Thanks to everyone for the useful comments. Working alone, its really useful to seek other views and to make sure I am not being a jobsworth!!!


The building has 10 floors serviced by 10 staircases, all of which are lobbied protected so there has been no discounting of staircases when establishing the maximum safe occupancy. There are no ignition sources in place now or proposed within the staircase enclosure. The building's occupancy is currently 300% more than the figure when the building & original fire safety strategy was designed. However, the occupancy remains just under the safe capacity as determined by a RA, but will reach that maximum figure in the next 36 months.

Two of the ten staircases have been designed with large wasteful landings where these 'drop in' areas are proposed. Neither of these staircases have automatic ventilation and rely on manual intervention by opening a window at the head of the staircase - including one at a very high level a ladder would be necessary!! There is L2 AFD, VESDA and single point, so early detection is likely, but there are no sprinklers.

It is not always possible for evacuees to retrace their steps, as when some enter a staircase, doors on some floors lock closed behind the last staff members as they pass through. During drills, evacuation times to a place of relative safety have been reasonable, but evac times from actuation to outside are fairly long. Being a very large building, there are 40 disable refuges - 10 of them are separated from a staircase where the meeting spaces would be by a single F30. One of the staircases where the furniture is proposed is a firefighting staircase with DRM and firefighting lift.

In a nutshell, this building will be full to the brim very soon and the need to ensure every staircase is available is essential. I really want to accommodate the request for more comfortable furniture, but predict that whilst scores of people are sitting comfortably in meetings, I will be forever uncomfortable with that decision.

 Its from this standpoint I am minded to accept only non combustible furniture (stainless or aluminium), or perhaps - if pushed very chunky timber furniture that has been treated. Neither of these options will acceptable to the image conscious occupiers.

I will sleep on it over the weekend before making the final decision

[kurnal]

I fully agree with your concerns Messy. No discounting and a fully occupied building limits your options under risk assessment.

Is there an option to lobby off the proposed seating area from the staircase?

Alternatively as a last resort if you lose the argument  could you  specify furnishings to HTM standards?

[Messy]

Thanks again Kurnal, but no - sadly separating the meeting areas from the staircases is not feasible for a variety of design and use reasons.

I hadn't considered the HTM argument to be honest. I had contracts with three health trusts when I was self employed and seen the after effects of a number fires involving HTM compliant furniture . Not wishing to tread on the toes of the 'civilianize enforcement' thread - but when I was a water squirter I also attended NHS and prison fires where perhaps some of the strictest controls of furniture exist, and I still wouldn't want to see this type furniture in any of these staircases.

However, I will carry out some further research along those lines and perhaps compile an options report where a range of choices will be offered, including specialist chairs such as those you mention

[AnthonyB]

These 'wasteful' landings weren't included for use as refuges/temporary waiting spaces not obstructing escape flow by any chance?