Maxmium occupancy of a public space

[reok91]

Hello All,

I am new on here.I am trying to gauge if my church is health and safety compliant to decide further steps. There are about 200-220 active participants during a service which , with bulk of the seating being pews, with the balcony having a theater style pull down seats. The church has a floor space of about 260 m2 altogether, with the seating occupying almost half the floor space.

How do I find out the maxmium permissible occupancy. I wish to get a professional report so that in the case of an inspection, we know we are compliant to regulations. Also I would like to know of the maximum permissible number of attendees in a service.


Thanks,
L.

[Messy]

Its a calculation based on the use of the building, the floor sizes in M2 and the size (in mm), position and number of escape routes

There's no point in me saying any more as many fire authorities provide excellent guidance such as Kent F&R


https://www.kent.fire-uk.org/sites/defa ... ATIONS.pdf

[reok91]

Thanks a lot Messy. I gather from the example calculations that non movable furniture which would include the pews and the theater chairs would be considered as occupying space like real world people and hence it brings down the net occupancy of the premises - would I be right in this consideration.

Thanks,
George.

[Messy]

Have a look at table D1 in Approved Document B (ADB). The link is in my last post

It provides a list of uses of premises and a floor space factor measured in m2 per person.

Example 4 states conference room, dining room, staff room, waiting room is 1m2 per person. Perhaps this is the nearest descriptor - only you will be able to assess that

Whilst that gives you plenty of space for the 220 people you refer to, you must now ensure there is sufficient escape exit width after removing the widest exit route from the calculation. This can often be the sticking point

[stephen1974]

If i recall, there is also various guidance in the documents for dfferent types of place. I dont think there are difference for space capacity but there other restriction such as how many seats you can place together before you need a gap for evacuations and stuff of that nature.

(sorry, no links at the moment)
Fire Safety - Large Places of Assmebly
Fire Safety - Small Plaes of Assembly

[reok91]

Thanks Stephen1974 and Messy. I appreciate it a lot.