Fire Safety – Public Advice

Domestic Premises Providing Sanctuary Rooms

Ref FS- PAN000 Issue/Revision Date 02/12/2013 Review Date 19/02/2015 Version: 7.0

PREMISES USED FOR SANCTUARY SCHEMES

Government has introduced, from the 1st April 2005 a revised Best Value Performance Indicator BVPI 225, dealing with domestic violence. A key part of this indicator is the requirement of local authorities to develop “sanctuary schemes” which enable victims of domestic violence to choose to remain in their home, but with additional safeguards provided in the form of professionally installed security measures to help victims of and prevent further domestic violence. In some cases this entails the installation of a Sanctuary Room in the property. The Sanctuary Room, normally the main bedroom, provides a secure place to retreat to and a place from where assistance can be summoned if the victim is under threat.

A SANCTUARY SCHEME may be defined as

A sanctuary type scheme must provide security measures to allow the occupier to remain in their home (if they choose to do so), where safety can be guaranteed and the violent partner no longer lives within the home. It must be available across tenures where the landlord of a property has given permission for the work to be carried out. The aim of a Sanctuary is to make it possible for households at risk of domestic violence to remain safely in their own homes.

The Fire Authority has no statutory powers to enforce the under mentioned standards in domestic/residential premises, consequently only recommendations and not requirements can be made. The final decision on the installation and type of doors, gates or grilles must, therefore, rest with the local authority, private landlord or owner/occupier.

Where added security is required to prevent unauthorised entry to premises this is often achieved by the provision of high security doors. Whilst this Authority is sympathetic towards individuals and companies wishing to improve security measures, the need to maintain means of escape in case of fire should not be overlooked. It is also sometimes necessary for fire fighters to gain access into premises in an emergency and a security door or other security measures can add significantly to the time that this takes, resulting in increased danger to both life and property from fire.

Standards are necessary so that the Fire and Rescue Service will not be unreasonably hindered in its job of rescuing trapped occupants or fighting fires. Householders must consider the possible dangers of entrapment that extra security devices can create.

Home fire safety check

Every property being considered for a Sanctuary Room should be subject to a home fire safety check which should include advice on maintenance and testing of any smoke alarms and general fire safety advice. The visit will also provide an opportunity to prepare an emergency escape plan, including a bedtime key routine, which is essential especially if additional security measures have been provided to doors and windows. Advice on simple actions to reduce the risk of an arson attack or mitigate its effects should also be given. Contact should be made with the Fire Authority to arrange a Home Fire Safety Check or request a visit from the district Arson Task Force.

Page 1 of 6 ADVICE TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Accommodating the occupant wholly at ground floor level should be a first consideration whenever possible. This may not always be acceptable to the occupant and in these cases the degree of fire safety for the occupant may be increased by providing additional fire protection to the sanctuary room forming a temporary refuge, so that in the event of a fire he/she can wait in a place of relative safety until the Fire Service arrives.

Not all types of premises will be suitable to house a Sanctuary Room. When considering a property it should be noted that, from a fire service viewpoint, any additional security measures should not compromise basic means of escape principles. Consideration should also be given to access for the fire service including, where possible, locating the Sanctuary Room at the front of the property with any opening facing the main access route to permit easy access by the Fire Service to facilitate rescue of the occupants in the event of an emergency.

As it is difficult to provide a means of escape in multi-storey buildings, Sanctuary Rooms should, ideally, only be installed in one or two storey properties. In such premises few considerations are necessary beyond ensuring that the Sanctuary Room opens directly onto a hallway or stair leading to the entrance to the premises with an alternative means of escape such as another door or window that can be opened without the use of a key.

It is recognised, however, that there will be instances where the victim resides in a block of flats and the Sanctuary Room is needed in premises above the second floor. In such circumstances it is likely that there will be no secondary means of escape, unless it is possible for the brigade to achieve this by ladder rescue, and consideration may need to be given to an enhanced level of fire protection and should be discussed on an individual basis for each premises.

Such additional protection should be to enclose the sanctuary room with materials having a 30- minute standard of fire resistance, including the floor of the sanctuary room where this is located on an upper level. Doors into the sanctuary room should have the same standard of fire resistance and be fitted with smoke seals. The doors should be effectively self-closing (rising butt hinges would be acceptable).

Where the sanctuary room is provided on an upper floor level, it should have a window that can be opened with an unobstructed opening that is at least 850mm high by 500mm wide. The bottom of the window opening should be not more than 1100mm and not less than 900mm above the floor. It should be situated in a position suitable for a rescue by ladder. The window should not be secured with a lock requiring the use of a key to open it.

Notifying the brigade

The fire service must be informed of the details of any premises where a Sanctuary Room and other Sanctuary measures have been installed. The details should include the full address and location within the premises of the Sanctuary Room and the details of any other Sanctuary measures such as reinforced external doors, window grilles and other measures which might impede access to the premises in an emergency. These details will be used to inform fire crews who may be called to any incident at the premises. It is also important that the Authority is informed if an existing Sanctuary Room is taken out of use. The Sanctuary Co-ordinator will be responsible for ensuring that the fire service and other emergency services (including the ambulance service) are aware of these details.

Page 2 of 6 SECURITY DOORS/GATES

The Sanctuary Room should be a fire resisting compartment able to withstand fire for a minimum of 30 minutes. Any door set should therefore be of similar fire resistance (known as FD30 or E30 doors). Intumescent and cold smoke fire seals should be rebated into all internal Sanctuary Room doors (or the receiving frame). In the event of fire these will greatly expand to seal the gap around the door to provide a safe and effective barrier against the passage of fire and smoke. A threshold should be provided on the bottom of the door to prevent the ingress of smoke and flammable liquids and any perforation of the door should be suitably protected to stop similar ingress.

Where doors form part of a means of escape route from more than one dwelling the complete fastening mechanism should comprise a single device operated manually from the premises side of the door by a control forming an integral part of the fastening mechanism. Security locks requiring the use of removable keys, electronic pass cards or digital keypads should not be used.

To prevent the introduction of lighted materials or accelerants through the letterbox, any external door to the premises should not be fitted with an integral letterbox. Where necessary, the letterbox should be a separate receptacle positioned away from the entrance door so a fire in it would not affect the escape from that door. If there is an existing letterbox in the external door it should be sealed up and replaced with an external wall mounted letter box as above or alternatively replaced with a special internal ‘arson letterbox’ or suitable alternative.

EMERGENCY ACCESS

When anyone is inside premises, it should be possible for the Fire and Rescue Service to affect an entry without undue delay using hand held equipment. The breach should be big enough to allow the manipulation of the internal operating device of the locking mechanism from the outside of the door. To this end the structure should be free from reinforcement, bracing, locking bars or other construction that would impede the breaching of the door at a point adjacent to the lock mechanism.

Where in cavity doors the space between two skins is filled with insulation material, the material should be of a type which will not present a hazard once exposed and which will not clog or impede the blade or tool of the device in use. Where it would be necessary to remove part of the insulation material to expose the inner skin of a cavity door, in order that the hole may be completed, the insulation material at the most likely point for the hole to be cut should be easily removable by hand.

The principles for security gate fitting should be similar to those used with security doors. Generally they should be easily opened from the inside without the need to search for a key. It should also be possible to breach the gate without delay by using hand held equipment.

Security doors and security gates should not be installed together at the same access point to the premises. Therefore, no more than one security door or gate should need to be breached to gain access to any dwelling.

WINDOW SECURITY GRILLES

External or internal grilles that cannot be opened should not be fitted to the windows of premises that have security doors/gates to the main entrance.

All window grilles should have open able area that will allow a window of minimum unobstructed opening area size of 450mm by 450mm to facilitate escape for the occupiers in the event of any emergency, and not impede the opening of the window.

Page 3 of 6 All grilles should be easily opened from the inside without the need to search for a key.

Page 4 of 6 ROLLER SHUTTERS/SECONDARY STEEL DOORS

Roller shutters and secondary steel doors are not recommended as a means of security. Where these have been installed on unoccupied dwellings they should be removed before any future occupancy is allowed.

SMOKE ALARMS

In all instances where any of the above security measures are taken it is most strongly recommended that smoke alarms be fitted within the premises. The smoke alarms should be so arranged as to be audible in all rooms of the dwelling and of sufficient audibility to raise occupants from their sleep. A fire detection and alarm system of the appropriate grade and type to comply with BS 5839: Part 6:2004 is recommended. The system should preferably be mains powered with a battery back up. Alternatively a sufficient number (normally one per floor) of 10 year battery powered smoke alarms should be provided in circulation areas.

An alarm should be installed close enough to a Sanctuary Room door to alert the occupants should they be asleep but not so loud as to interfere with any subsequent telephone call to summon assistance.

TELEPHONE PROVISION

It is important that a reliable means for summoning assistance in the event of an emergency is provided for the occupier. It is therefore strongly recommended that a dedicated telephone line is provided for the premises with an extension within the Sanctuary Room. A Fire Instruction Notice should be fixed adjacent to the telephone extension. The notice should include clear instructions that, when calling the fire brigade, the caller should state that they are in a locked room and give the room’s location (e.g. ground floor, front or back of premises). In addition, and to take account of possible interference with the telephone cable, a ‘pay-as- you-go’ mobile phone with credit should be provided and kept available for use at all times in the Sanctuary Room.

FIRE PLAN

The occupant should be advised to have a personal emergency plan to follow in case of fire. The plan should cover what to do if they discover a fire, action on hearing the fire alarm and arrangements for immediately calling the Fire Service (particularly important where they are unable to get out unaided).

Page 5 of 6 BIBLIOGRAPHY

TITLE PUBLICATION AVAILABLE FROM

Building Regulations 2006 Approved Document B SO BS 3621 Specification for theft resistant locks BSI BS EN 1125:2008 Building hardware - panic exit devices BSI operated by a horizontal bar - requirements and test methods (AMD 13311) BS EN 14604:2005: Point type smoke detectors BSI BS 5839: Part 6:2004 Fire detection and alarm systems for BSI buildings BS 5872 Specification for locks and latches for doors in BSI buildings BS 8220 Guide for security of buildings against crime Part BSI 1: Dwellings Part 2: Offices and shops

BS 476: Part 22: Methods for Determination of the Fire BSI Resistance of Non-Load Bearing Elements of Construction BS 5588: Part 1: Code of Practice for Residential Buildings BSI PD 6512: Part 3: Guide to the Performance of Glass BSI BS 476: Part 20: 1987 AMD 1 Fire tests on building BSI materials and structures. Part 20: Method for determination of the fire resistance of elements of construction (general principles) (AMD 6487) dated 30 April 1990

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