Introduction to means of escape provisions

The guidance in Section 2 is concerned with ensuring that occupants are given warning of, and have a means of escape from, a fire. It only refers to structural fire precautions where these are necessary to safeguard an escape route. The provisions have been prepared on the basis that the occupants of any part of a building should be able to escape from the building, in the event of a fire, without external assistance. In dwellings and certain other buildings an automatic fire detection and alarm system can significantly increase the level of safety by automatically giving an early warning of fire. In other buildings an appropriate fire alarm system should provide adequate warning to occupants. The design of the means of escape is based on the assumption that a fire will start in only one location and initially be a hazard in that area only. Subsequently it may spread to other parts, usually through circulation routes.