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Fire and evacuation | The 'Stay put' policy

Fire safety in blocks of flats is highly dependent upon fire resistant construction. When considering the construction of individual houses, the way they are constructed with party wall separation is a large part of ensuring that fire does not pass from one dwelling to the next. In flats, the concept is similar but is achieved through effective compartmentation of the individual flats within a block, and the protection of common areas and corridors to help ensure escape. The inclusion of fire resistant compartmentation should help to ensure that fire is contained in its area of origin and does not endanger those flats nearby. This is the basis of the 'Stay put' policy which means that any persons in the flat of fire origin will need to evacuate, but that their neighbours should not need to evacuate and will remain safe.

Compartmentation |Blocks of flats

Compartmentation within blocks of flats refers to each flat being contained within fire resisting construction, designed to withstand fire. The walls and floor of each ‘compartment’ are designed to resist fire for a sufficiently long period, so that the fire would burn itself out before those fire resistant walls and floor would allow fire spread to other parts of the building.

It is an essential part of the fire safety strategy for blocks of flats for many reasons, chief amongst them, of course, are life preservation, building integrity and damage limitation.

Effective compartmentation helps to ensure that fire cannot spread from the point of fire origin (within the compartmented flat) to common areas such as landings, staircases and communal rooms. It also considers ‘hidden’ areas of potential fire spread such as concealed voids, external wall cavities, ducts and service risers and will take into account shafts such as rubbish chutes, lift shafts etc.

It would be usual practice for each flat or dwelling to be one compartment. This means, in essence, that fire can spread...

Fire safety in blocks of flats | Design of escape routes

In last week’s blog about fire safety, we looked at the fire risk for blocks of flats and compared it to that of individual dwellings. Although it was established that high rise did not have to mean high risk, it points strongly towards the way construction of flats was approached.

In this blog, we will concentrate on how escape route design principles should guide the construction of the block and how this can limit and control the overall design of the building.

Front doors to flats

Front doors to individual flats must be fire resistant and self-closing. A closed and fire resistant flat door will help to keep fire from spreading into the common areas and will also help prevent smoke escape into the corridor.

Corridors and stairways

Each area of fire resistance within the common areas must be constructed so as to allow the safe egress of residents to the next area. It is therefore essential that corridors leading to stairways are built so as to enclose fire-resisting construction and that adequate...

Fire Safety in blocks of flats | High rise vs high risk

It is a common misconception that high rise builds with multiple occupancies are more dangerous from a fire safety point of view. 

Our homes, across the board, have never been more fire safe. Indeed, the National Statistics office data on fire shows clearly that incidences of fires across all domestic premises have decreased steadily since 1981 and that casualties as a result of those fires have decreased since the early 90s.
While statistics published by the Local Government Group indicate that around 25% of domestic fires per year occur in purpose built blocks of flats, those same statistics illustrate clearly that individuals are less likely to suffer injury or death as a result of the fires.

Part of the reason for what might appear to be an incongruous result is the way that blocks of flats are structured. A fire in one dwelling need not affect the apartment next door, due to compartmentation. Fire resistant structures, fire walls and fire doors all help to keep a blaze contained in the room, or dwelling, where it...

Fire Safety Housekeeping & Management

Housekeeping, to many people, may refer to domestic chores, such as shopping or cleaning. However, in the world of fire safety, it is a term frequently used to describe a range of day-to-day issues and tasks relating to fire prevention which, if left outstanding can have adverse effects on the residual risk posed by fire.

Fire Safety Management

Management will have a significant impact on the housekeeping issues that might arise. In construction, the phrase “a tidy site, is a safe site” is often used and whilst this is not strictly true, the essence of the saying is. The key to good management is keeping ahead of simple activities, such as general tidiness and it follows that ‘a tidy site’ would indicate that the same organisational principles are followed throughout other work processes.

Management of fire safety is paramount. If the management system is poor, common deficiencies are frequently highlighted. These include, inaccurate and/or incomplete documentation and records, which, in turn, often lead to fire safety systems etc. not being tested appropriately, therefore increasing the likelihood of...