Means of escape
Requirement B1 of the building regulations requires that when there is a fire, there is both:
- Satisfactory means of sounding an alarm.
- Satisfactory means of escape for people.
Approved document B, Fire Safety, Volume 2, Buildings other than dwellinghouses, defines ‘means of escape’ as:
‘Structural means that provide one or more safe routes for people to go, during a fire, from any point in the building to a place of safety.’
The approved document defines an escape route as ‘The route along which people can escape from any point in a building to a final exit.’ where a final exit is ‘The end of an escape route from a building that gives direct access to a street, passageway, walkway or open space, and is sited to ensure that people rapidly disperse away from the building so that they are no longer in danger from fire and/or smoke.'
NOTE: Windows are not acceptable as final exits.
The approved document sets out ways that means of escape can be provided in commonly-occuring situations.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- Automatic release mechanism.
- Building evacuation.
- Controlled fitting.
- Emergency lighting.
- Escape route.
- Evacuating vulnerable and dependent people from buildings in an emergency FB 52.
- Exit passageway.
- Fire.
- Fire detection and alarm systems.
- Fire door.
- Fire Door Inspection Scheme.
- Fire protection engineering.
- Fire resistance.
- Fire safety design.
- Fire separation.
- Firefighting lift.
- Inner room.
- Installing fire doors and doorsets (GG 86).
- Protected escape route.
- Protected stair v escape stair.
- Storey exit.
- The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
- Unprotected escape route.
- Visual alarm devices - their effectiveness in warning of fire.
- Vomitory.
- Wayfinding.
Featured articles and news
The infrastructure planning process
A look at the Government's strategic approach.
Steps to help reduce the spread of infection inside buildings.
Urban exploration and construction
This social media-centred hobby can be both dangerous and illegal.
Millwork wall treatment with a long and illustrious history.
Weekly workplace noise estimator tool
HSE introduces cumulative exposure calculator.
The Edwardians and their houses.
Cut off from civilian life for over 900 years.
Can net zero and levelling-up align?
Gaining green support from the carbon giants.
Medieval passageways with spiritual, transport and economic purposes.
CIOB applauded for people management leadership
Organisation receives accreditation from Investors in People.
Receive the Designing Buildings newsletter
Click the button to subscribe.
The importance of successful crisis messaging
Communicating the right information at the right time.
Angular selective shading systems
Materials can take on different properties to control heat and glare.
Challenges in the construction sector and beyond.