fire escapes

[osh]

hello all,

Not 100% sure this is the right section, but it seems close enough.

We (as in work) have just moved into a new office. It is the first floor of a building (downstairs is used for storage by another company who work out of a building next door)

We only have 1 entrance / exit point (the main door). Should we not have a secondary fire exit for emergency use. We are not sure at work (we are only the grunts, so before we say anything we want to know the facts)

We thought that anything over ground level needs to have 2 exits.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
Ta

[Postdog]

Don't know the legal in's and out's but probably the best thing is to express your concerns the the local fire safety officer (fire brigade) and ask that he does a discreet check on the premises. He will, I believe, be quite within his rights to demand an inspection and act accordingly.

[maviscoull]

have a read here :
http://www.merseyfire.gov.uk/pages/fp_workplac e/fp_work2.htm

[osh]

cheers for the link, very interesting.

it appears that a number of factors come into play - size of office (small in this case), risk (low as just office, no sleeping people, no machinery) etc

therefore according to the MFRS we are safe

ta

[maviscoull]

your welcome.

[pedros]

Don't be complacent about this issue Osh. I think you may have under-assessed the risk factor. An office environment is probably classed as a 'normal fire risk'. There are plenty of things in most offfices that can ignite (eg. photocopiers, electric heaters, electric fans, some lighting, flammable liquids, etc) as well as lots of combustible material. In your case you could show some concern about what is stored downstairs and the risk factor of their premises. Can you safely egress from your office if the downstairs floor is burning?
I would recommend Postdog's suggestion to get a proper fire risk assessment carried out by accredited fire safety officers.

[BillyBB]

If there are five or more of you then you need to carry out a risk assesment to comply with the new leglislation anyway. http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=116 2103