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The car park

Sergio Fernandez

There are several main types of car park in the UK

Open air
Multi-storey open sided
Basement
Basement with dwellings or commercial space above

The UK is seeing a large move towards EV (Electric Vehicles) from traditional ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) there have also been several well documented Car park fires in the last decade.  Eg Luton Airport Car park October 2023 with over 1500 vehicles destroyed or damaged

Should all UK Car Parks apart from Open air have 
Fire detection with 24/7/365 monitoring with backup power supply
Increase amount of manual fire call points per floor and throughout stairwells to increase evacuation alert
EVSE auto shut off for power in the event of a fire or an alarm
Battery backup for emergency lights for a min of 6 hours
Increased amount of illuminated fire exits signs
Fire resistant cabling throughout
Fire restitant cable management/containment throughout
Increase IP rating throughout in case of fire due to the amount of water that may be used
Annual EICR
Technology/Mechanisms to assist evacuation of disabled and mobility impaired persons, this could include evacuation lift replacing the passenger lift



As always please be polite and respectful in this purely academic debate.





Come on everybody let’s help inspire the future

  • in reply to pww235
    pww235 said:
    it's usually pretty obvious it is a door.

    perhaps not always...

    (random image from a search for "door in glass wall")

        - Andy.

  • in reply to pww235

    I am aware of the recommendations of the current standards, but they are just the creation of a small cross-section of mankind, based probably on a few meetings and a bit of study work, and could, indeed should,  if found to be misleading or inadequate in practice , be changed and are.
    I'm just indicating that to me the arrow thing is  a bit arbitrary.

    (it is certainly within  my living memory that we had the word 'EXIT' in white capitals on a black background as the UK standard..  Green is perhaps  1990s onwards and arrows soon after  ? Wheelchair exit signs are very new... )
    Mike.

  • in reply to pww235
    pww235 said:
    Pet peeve is a down arrow above a door.

    I can understand the use of fire exit signs with arrows which point towards the nearest fire exit, but why have an arrow at the exit? It seems superfluous.

    Once you are through a fire door, further arrows would be useful until you have left the building.

  • in reply to Chris Pearson

    Worked in a building that had open plan with glass main doors (not a fire exit) and then an exit via a previous architectural feature where the fire exits didn't align with floor levels, so sometimes you had to go up stairs to get out. Quite confusing!

  • in reply to Philip Oakley

    Are the Scottish government ahead of the English government in their thinking?  They are asking the people of Scotland to contribute  

    Scottish building regulations - fire safety review and compliance: call for evidence

    www.gov.scot/.../

  • in reply to AJJewsbury

    No escape route door in that example there Andy. I get the point though - architects love a fancy door. Still, down arrow is change of direction only.

  • in reply to Sergio Fernandez
    Sergio Fernandez said:
    Eg A lit cigarette dropped on some rubbish could be the start of the fire but once there is a fire it starts/could start to spread from Vehicle to Vehicle and then potentially from one floor to another which could possibly be up as well as down due to gases and liquids in the car park.

    But, as demonstrated in the fires I cited, isn't this an issue anyway (i.e. nothing to do with EVs)?

  • in reply to gkenyon
    gkenyon said:
    But, as demonstrated in the fires I cited, isn't this an issue anyway (i.e. nothing to do with EVs)?

    The EV does not need to be the root cause of the fire BUT once the EV/EVs starts to catch fire it is a lot harder to exstinguish than an ICE during which time more and more vehicles catch fire.  At the moment only a certain % of the car park will be EV but as EVs become more popular/main stream the percentage of EVs in a car park will increase.  Worth noting that it is becoming more common place for a block of flats to have car parking below.  

  • in reply to Sergio Fernandez
    Sergio Fernandez said:
    The EV does not need to be the root cause of the fire BUT once the EV/EVs starts to catch fire it is a lot harder to exstinguish than an ICE during which time more and more vehicles catch fire.

    Accepting that EV fires may be more difficult to extinguish, is there any evidence that fire spreads more easily between them? After all, once the fuel tank of an ICE vehicle ruptures, the fire is just going to spread to under neighbouring vehicles.

  • in reply to Sergio Fernandez

    It is worth looking at the studies and design aspects of RoRo ships, which are just moving Car Parks. The LASH FIRE webinar on Youtube is quite interesting for design issues - it included a live demo (during a webinar!!).

    Once thermoplastics and rubber (the modern plastic car) get ignited, the alternative fuels sources are the lesser worry (IIRC).

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