Escape is the point of the whole regime. Articles 14 and 15 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 require routes and exits to be kept clear, to lead as directly as possible to a place of safety, to be indicated by signs where necessary, and to be usable at all material times. Everything else, detection, compartmentation, suppression, exists to buy the time that escape needs.
What an escape route has to be
Available at all material times, which means not locked, not blocked, and not dependent on a key that someone has taken home. Doors on escape routes open in the direction of escape where the number of people requires it, and final exits open easily and immediately without a key, which is what final fire exit doors must have. Routes lead to a place of safety in the open air, not to a yard nobody can leave.
Signage that does something
A sign is needed where the exit is not obvious, and the useful test is whether a stranger in the building could find their way out by following them. That means signs at every change of direction, signs visible from the far end of a corridor, and signs illuminated or photoluminescent where the lighting could fail. Signs with no route behind them are the most common finding of all.
The assembly point
Far enough from the building to be out of the way of falling glass and arriving appliances, reachable without crossing the route the fire service will use, and somewhere people will actually stand in the rain. It goes in the emergency plan and on the signage, and it is tested in a drill rather than assumed.
People who cannot use the stairs
A personal emergency evacuation plan, a PEEP, is written with the individual and says how they will leave, who assists, what equipment is used, and where they wait if a refuge is part of the plan. Evacuation chairs make a refuge plan workable and are useless without trained people, which is the half that gets left out. A refuge is a place to wait with communication, not a place to be left.
Stay put, and when it applies
In purpose built blocks of flats with adequate compartmentation, the strategy is often that residents not directly affected stay in their flats while the fire is contained in the one it started in. It depends entirely on the compartmentation actually being intact, which is why a stay put policy and a fire door survey belong to the same conversation. Where compartmentation is in doubt, the strategy has to change, usually to simultaneous evacuation with a common alarm.
Smoke ventilation and AOVs
Automatic opening vents clear smoke from stairs and lobbies so the escape route stays usable and the fire service can work. They are life safety systems and they are maintained and tested like any other, which in practice means a service contract and a record, and an AOV that has not been tested since handover is a common finding in a block.
Questions people ask about fire exit sign
What must final fire exit doors have?
They must open easily and immediately without a key, open in the direction of escape where the numbers require it, and lead to a place of safety in the open air.
Are fire exit signs a legal requirement?
Article 14 of the Order requires emergency routes and exits to be indicated by signs where necessary. Where the way out is not obvious, signs are necessary.
What is a PEEP?
A personal emergency evacuation plan: an individual plan for someone who cannot evacuate unaided, naming the route, the assistance, the equipment and any refuge.
Is stay put always the right strategy?
No. It depends on compartmentation being intact. Where a fire risk assessment finds the compartmentation is in doubt, the evacuation strategy has to change until it is put right.