Means of Escape from Fire

by M. J. Billington, Alex Copping, Anthony Ferguson

Overview

The provision of an adequate means of escape from fire is fundamental to the design of new buildings and to the alteration, change of use or extension of existing buildings. It is essential that means of escape are considered at the earliest stage of a project as mistakes are very expensive to correct later in the design.

There is a great deal of legislation on means of escape design and control, but this is scattered throughout a large number of statutes, regulations and guidance documents. Many buildings need to be licensed and/or registered, as well as requiring certification and Building Regulation compliance.

This book provides an invaluable reference on the subject for architects, surveyors and building control officers. It:

• identifies the legislation which applies to any particular building use

• describes the general principles of designing means of escape, together with a ten step approach for a range of residential and non-residential buildings

• considers alternative design options based on fire safety engineering

• outlines fire safety management in premises in use as an aid to employers, who have a statutory duty to undertake fire risk assessments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780632032037
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	07/19/2002
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

M. J. Billington, BSc, MRICS, MIoR, is a Chartered Building Surveyor. He was formerly Senior Lecturer in building control and construction at De Montfort University, Leicester, before leaving to join the private sector, where he continued to act as visiting lecturer at a number of universities. Currently he is Managing Director of Construction Auditing Services Ltd, a company that specialises in latent defects technical auditing, and is Chairman of Certass Ltd, one of the leading Building Regulations Competent Persons Schemes for building fabric. Mike is a regular contributor to Knights Building Regulations and is widely published in the fields of building control and building surveying.

Table of Contents

Means of escape - the background; New and altered buildings - the statutory requirements; Buildings in use - the statutory requirements; Means of escape - general principles; Means of escape - principles in practice; Dwellinghouses, flats and maisonettes; Application to buildings other than dwellings; Modification of the basic principles of means of escape; New approaches 1: BS999: Part 1 Means of escape; New approaches 2: Fire safety engineering; Management of fire safety; Appendix A Means of escape case study; Appendix B Fire risk assessment case study