Living above a business
Do you own a business premises? Do you, your family or anybody else sleep at or above the premises? If so, fire safety law applies and you may need to take action.
Do you own a business premises? Do you, your family or anybody else sleep at or above the premises? If so, fire safety law applies and you may need to take action.
Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service regularly inspects businesses where upper floors are being used for sleeping accommodation. In many cases it has come to light that people are sleeping in rooms or flats above businesses where inadequate fire precautions are in place to protect them.
In these circumstances, a fire in the ground floor business carries with it a high risk of serious injury or worse to those above. People living on upper floors can find it difficult to evacuate quickly and safely in an emergency unless a safe exit route is available and they can be made aware of a fire below them.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 makes you responsible for taking steps to protect the people using your premises from the risk of fire.
You must:
It is a thorough look at your premises and the people who are likely to be in them. It considers the risk of fire breaking out and what measures you need to put in place to prevent it and keep people safe in the event a fire does occur.
You can significantly reduce the danger of an injury in case of fire to those sleeping above your premises by carrying out the following:
Typically, between the stairs and the commercial premises. A fire in the commercial premises can allow smoke and the products of combustion to enter the staircase and stop people exiting.
Signs to look out for:
If a flat or bedsit can only be accessed through the commercial premises, fire can spread very quickly from one area to another, and you may have no way to escape.
Signs to look out for:
Ducting from the commercial premises running through a flat or bedsit, or close to windows externally, can be dangerous too. A fire in the commercial premises ducting can allow fire and heat build-up in the ducting and this could ignite items close by in your flat or bedsit. If the ducting is properly encased and kept clean, this isn't something to worry about.
Signs to look out for:
Structurally speaking, flats or maisonettes within a building should have an access route that isn't through the commercial premises.
It's also important that there are appropriate fire doors in use. That means:
Generally there should be 60-minute fire protection to floors, ceilings and walls between commercial areas and residential areas – that means if you live in a flat above commercial premises, the adjoining areas should be able to resist fire for 60 minutes before it can spread.
It may be possible to reduce this to 30 minutes in lower risk commercial premises where there is an automatic fire detection system which is linked to the residential system.