Fwd: Visit from fire brigade

[Russ Garrett]

I sent this writeup to the trustees list and they suggested I send it
to this list as well:

The fire brigade visited the space this morning. Paddy and a few
others were there. I asked them to call me and one of them did.

He said that someone ("possibly disgruntled") had emailed them with a
complaint, and this was an inspection resulting from that. Obviously
he didn't go into who it was, but my impression is that it was an
attendee of the space and not someone from Workspace.

The guy was very friendly and it seemed clear that everything he
suggested were minor improvements and he wasn't forcing us to make any
changes.

He suggested:

* Housekeeping could probably be a bit better, but he stressed that
this is a very minor issue as long as the space isn't very busy.
* Concerns about the kitchen door getting locked and the key lost. (I
think we should get push-bars on both fire doors ASAP.)
* They mentioned in person that it "would be nice" for the exit by the
3-in-1 to be usable as a fire exit. (I believe this is not required by
the building regs.)
* Emergency lighting would be a good idea. (IMO this is a nice-to-have
and would be a bit of a pain to implement properly if we're moving out
soon.)
* He was keen to see better access control for tools (not sure how
much he was aware of), which I found slightly surprising but it's
obviously not an unreasonable suggestion.
* He was interested to know exactly what the biohacking entailed - I
told him it was low-level and non-hazardous until I get a risk
assessment from the biohackers, and I'd let them know if this
situation changed. (I would like to follow this up as this is an area
I can't accurately write a risk assessment for.)
* We probably should have notified them about gas canisters (I think
this is just good practice, not statutory) - he is going to get in
contact with the local fire station and let them know. They may want
to visit.
* He would like to see a fire risk assessment from us - he'll email me
about it. It's not an issue for me to write that up.

My action items here are:

* We should make a weekly fire safety check a more formal affair.
* We should be marking fire exit paths on the floor in the workshop,
and checking they're clear regularly.
* We should sort out push-bars for the back doors soon.

--
Russ Garrett
Trustee, London Hackspace
ru...@hackspace.org.uk

[Ian Henderson]

Surprised there wasn't a comment about the empty fire extinguishers - or maybe they've all been removed / replaced?

[Russ Garrett]

On 2 October 2012 12:56, Ian Henderson <i...@advancedforensics.com> wrote:
> Surprised there wasn't a comment about the empty fire extinguishers - or maybe they've all been removed / replaced?

We got rid of them a while back.

--
Russ Garrett
ru...@garrett.co.uk

[SamLR]

It won't be for a few weeks (very busy ATM) but I'd be willing to put some more hatching near the fire exits (in the same was as around the member's boxes) unless someone else wants to do this; it's not hard. 

I'd say in general we should be a bit stricter about which areas things can be left in (i.e. not many of them) and we should perhaps look at a method of making a larger 3-week bin so that big items can be put in it out of the way rather than being balconised or left where they're a risk.

S

[Morris]

zero tolerance rule on blockage, anything blocking the exists can be placed directly in the rubbish (downstairs) by any member at any time - that would sort it out :)

--
>
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+++++>++++++++++<<<<
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+++++.+++..---------
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[Dirk-Willem van Gulik]

On 2 Oct 2012, at 15:16, Morris wrote:

> zero tolerance rule on blockage, anything blocking the exists can be placed directly in the rubbish (downstairs) by any member at any time - that would sort it out :)
>
> On 2 October 2012 14:31, SamLR <sam.lind...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It won't be for a few weeks (very busy ATM) but I'd be willing to put some more hatching near the fire exits (in the same was as around the member's boxes) unless someone else wants to do this; it's not hard.
>
> I'd say in general we should be a bit stricter about which areas things can be left in (i.e. not many of them) and we should perhaps look at a method of making a larger 3-week bin so that big items can be put in it out of the way rather than being balconised or left where they're a risk.

A time honour way to ensure this is to simply paint a yellow cross hatch pattern near the doors in the area not to be filled. That makes it fair for all involved,

Dw.

[Monty]

Would be awesome if we could get people enforcing Rule 10 more often but seems some have reluctance and lean towards leniency since it's so sparsely enforced and thus even seem to discourage enforcers of this rule.

[SamLR]

A time honour way to ensure this is to simply paint a yellow cross hatch pattern near the doors in the area not to be filled. That makes it fair for all involved,

That's what I was going to do. 

As to zero tolerance no one will enforce it where as making an area that can be used as a 3-week bin for big items things may actually get processed out. 

The 3-week system works reasonably well but bigger things get up in a grey area because they don't fit in the box. Even if it means that large items loiter for 3 weeks ultimately it means they leave. 

S

[cepm...@yahoo.co.uk]

I brought in panic latches for both the rear doors a while ago, will fit
them as a priority before the weekend.

If you need any assistance with the Fire RA I have written several over
the years and have had a lot of experience dealing with the fire officers
too, they are usually very helpful and accommodating if you show willing.

Phil

--
" et cognoscetis veritatem et veritas liberabit vos. "

On Tue, 02 Oct 2012 12:41:04 +0100, Russ Garrett <ru...@hackspace.org.uk>
wrote:

[930913]

Strip lighting on the floor guiding you to an exit, bearing that the nearest exit may be behind you?

[Peter "Sci" Turpin]

I'm not sure if that's meant as a joke on over-engineering our way out
of problems, but there's several issues with it.

1. We don't have a centralised "emergency" trigger to set it off.
2. Running around walls at ground-level is impractical as most walls
have stuff against them.
3. We have concrete floors so no recessing is possible, so any
light-strip will be a likely trip-hazard.
4. The space is the definition of open-plan, there's nowhere to get lost
in that would necessitate guidance lighting.

At absolute most, maybe we could do with some emergency lighting and
illuminated "Emergency Exit" signs. At *most*. A lit sign above each
door and a battery floodlight in workshop, lobby and general room.