Fire precautions in the design, construction and use of buildings

BS 5588-8:1999 pdf free.Fire precautions in the design, construction and use of buildings一 Part 8: Code of practice for means of escape for disabled people.
Scotland:
The Fire Precautions Act 1971, as amended by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act. 1974 and the Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987.
The Building (Scotland) Act 1959 (as amended).
The Fire Certificates (Special Premises) Regulations 1976. SI 1976 No. 2003 (as amended).
The Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997. Northern Ireland:
The Fire Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1984 and the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland)
Order 1978.
The Planning and Building Regulations (Amendment Order)(Northern Ireland) Order 1990. The Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998.
There are also a number of local Acts as well as entertainment and other licensing legislation that deal with fire safety and means of escape. The designer should consult the fire authority and building authority at an early stage to make certain that the building as planned will meet the requirements that authorities ma’ make, particularly if a fire certificate or licence may be necessary.
NOTE Under the Fire Precautions Ad. 1971. where means of escape in case of fire have been provided in accordance with the Building Regulations 1991 in England and Wales, or in Scotland. the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations 1990. fire authorities cannot generally make structural or other alterations a condition ofthe issue of a lire certificate or serve an improvement notice, unless:
a) such alterations are necessary to meet the requirements of any regulations made under Section 12 of the Act: or
b) the fire authority is satisfied that the means of escape in case ol fire and the means provided to secure that they can be safely and effectively used at all material times, arc inadequate by reason of matters or circumstances of which particulars were not required to be supplied to the local authority in connection with the deposit of plans for building regulation/building standards purposes. The deliberate or accidental omission of required information from such plans may be viewed similarly.
4.4 Information to be given to clients
E Advice on evacuation procedures, including techniques for assisting disabled people to leave buildings. and on the management of evacuation lifts is given in BS 5588-12. iJ
Designers should inform their clients of the nature, function and capabilities of the fire precautions that have been designed into the building, and especially those whose nature may be less evident. This enables a better understanding of the responsibility for ensuring that a high standard of safety is maintained.
The development, maintenance and implementation of Ei evacuation procedures (see BS 5588.12) J including assistance techniques, and the initial management of evacuation lifts, is the responsibility of the building’s management team. It is also the responsibility of the building’s management team to provide formal guidance to ensure that, where necessary, those people who use the building can familiarize themselves with the various strategies and management systems. By this means individual building users can be made aware of a clear role for themselves within escape procedures in the event of an emergency.
4.5 Use of the diagrams
The diagrams in Figure 1 to F) Figure 5 (J are intended to clarify concepts, and should not be taken as indicating the only acceptable forms of planning. Features not relevant to the concepts or principle(s) being illustrated are not shown.
5 Provision for escape
The traditional method of providing means of escape assumes that building users are able-bodied people and that the essential role of management in a fire is to ensure that the fire brigade is called and to ascertain the status of any evacuation.
The presumption of independent capability to use steps and stairs for egress is clearly inadequate when considering the safety of some disabled people. For them evacuation involving the use of refuges on escape routes and either assistance down (or up) stairways or the use of suitable lifts will be necessary. Accordingly, this part of BS 5588 covers the measures appropriate for the safety of disabled people from the moment they, and/or the building management, become aware of potential danger until they reach a place of safety. This concept is illustrated in Figure 1.
The successful emergency evacuation of a building can be greatly assisted by comprehensive management procedures. This applies whether the occupants of a building are disabled or not. The management procedures for disabled people need to include arrangements for assisting wheelchair bound people and those with walking difficulties or certain other impairments.
Although this part of BS 5588 makes no recommendation that all buildings should be provided with evacuation lifts, it is recognized that the provision of an evacuation lift reduces the need to provide physical assistance for the evacuation of disabled people.
More detailed information on E evacuation procedures is given in BS 5588-12 J. The application of the recommendations of this part of BS 5588 should also result in buildings that offer enhanced means of escape in fire for able-bodied persons.
Although a lift may have been used for movement from storey to storey in the building as a matter of course, use of a lift during an outbreak of fire should only be considered where suitable safeguards are incorporated in both the building structure and the lift engineering system. Even with these safeguards, there will remain some risk that the lift may be, or may become, defective (e.g. if the lift motor fails, or if there is smoke within the lift well). or there may be some delay in its arrival. It is therefore important that a disabled person, having reached an evacuation lift lobby, should have access to a stairway which could be used if conditions in the lift lobby become untenable (see Figure 4 and 8.2).
Where an evacuation lift is provided and access to it is cut oft’ because of the position of the fire, a stairway in another part of the storey could he used to descend to a lower storey from where it may he safe to take the lift to the final exit level. This situation is demonstrated in Figure 4a) and Figure 4c).
For these reasons it is essential that the use of stairways is considered even in buildings provided with an evacuation lift. Evacuation of a wheelchair bound person, down or up a stairway, is dealt with under management procedures E) (see B.S 5588-12) J.BS 5588-8 pdf free download.Fire precautions in the design, construction and use of buildings