Escape route

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Approved document B, Fire Safety, Volume 2, Buildings other than dwellinghouses, defines an escape routes as a:

Where a final exit is:

'The termination of an escape route from a building giving direct access to a street, passageway, walkway or open space and sited to ensure the rapid dispersal of persons from the vicinity of a building so that they are no longer in danger from fire and/or smoke.'

Windows are not acceptable as final exits.

Escape routes may be protected or unprotected, where an unprotected part of an escape route, is that part ‘…which a person has to traverse before reaching either the safety of a final exit or the comparative safety of a protected escape route, i.e. a protected corridor or protected stairway.’

See unprotected escape route and protected escape route for more information.

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