Protected escape route

Approved document B, Fire Safety, Volume 2, Buildings other than dwellinghouses, defines an escape route as:

‘The route along which people can escape from any point in a building to a final exit.’

Where a final exit is: 'The end of an escape route from a building that gives direct access to a street, passageway, walkway or open space, and is sited to ensure that people rapidly disperse away from the building so that they are no longer in danger from fire and/or smoke. NOTE: Windows are not acceptable as final exits.'

Escape routes can be protected or unprotected, where an unprotected escape route is the unprotected part of an escape route which a person has to traverse before reaching either the safety of a final exit or the comparative safety of a protected escape route, i.e. a protected corridor or protected stairway.

A protected corridor/lobby is, 'A corridor or lobby that is adequately protected from fire in adjoining areas by fire resisting construction.'

A protected stairways is, ‘A stair that leads to a final exit to a place of safety and that is adequately enclosed with fire resisting construction. Included in the definition is any exit passageway between the foot of the stair and the final exit.'

NB:

• A protected entrance hall/landing is, ‘A corridor or lobby that is adequately protected from fire in adjoining areas by fire resisting construction.'
• A protected shaft is, ‘A shaft that enables people, air or objects to pass from one compartment to another, and which is enclosed with fire resisting construction.'

NB Planning Gateway One - Glossary, published on the Planning Portal, defines a protected corridor as a: ‘Circulation area consisting of a lobby or corridor enclosed with fire resistant construction (other than any part that is an external wall of a building).’

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Automatic release mechanism.
• Building evacuation.
• Corridor.
• Escape route.
• Evacuation chair.
• Fire.
• Fire compartment.
• Fire detection and alarm systems.
• Fire door.
• Fire Door Inspection Scheme.
• Fire protection engineering.
• Fire resistance.
• Fire-separating element.
• Fire separation.
• Firefighting lift.
• Firefighting route.
• Firefighting shaft.
• Inner room.
• Installing fire doors and doorsets (GG 86).
• Lobby.
• Protected stairway.
• Separating floor.
• Storey exit.
• The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
• Unprotected escape route.
• Visual alarm devices - their effectiveness in warning of fire.