Houses in Multiple Occupation can vary in size and risk; FSD were contracted to carry out fire risk assessments for a Cambridge University who have a stock of fourteen houses converted to student accomodation. Typically properties are victorian terraced houses ranging from low risk (up to six bedrooms) to medium risk two three and four floors and some with basements.
The university was provided with seperate assessments for each building concentrating on the common parts and communial areas. Three purpose built flats required alternative means of escaperoutes which involved complicated pass doors and subsiquent window escape onto external staircases. This method proved to be difficult to maintain due to students continually obstructing the by-pass doors.
FSD were able to design an alternative arrangement which negated the need for a secondry means of escape by simply upgrading certain doors and improving the automatic fire detection; the main escape staircase is now maintained to a one hour fire resisting standard; the re-designing of the fire alarm also meant that false alarm calls were greatly reduced, with initial alarms being confined to each flat thereafter a secondry detector actuating would then alert the remaining flats.