EXIT REQUIREMENTS

General - The following general requirement shall apply to exits.

  1. Every building meant for human occupancy shall be provided with exits sufficient to permit safe escape of occupants in case of fire or other emergency;
  2. In every building exits shall comply with the minimum requirements of this part except those not accessible for general public use:
  3. All exits shall be free of a obstructions;
  4. No building shall be altered so as to reduce the number, width or protection of exits to less than that required;
  5. Exits shall be clearly visible and the routes to reach the exist shall be clearly marked and sign posted to quite the population to floor concerned;
  6. All exit ways shall be properly illuminated;
  7. Fire fighting equipment where provided along exits shall be suitably located and clearly marked but must not obstructed the exit way and yet there should be clear indication about its location from either side of the exit way;
  8. Alarm devices shall be installed for buildings above 13 m. in height, to insure prompt evacuation of the population concerned through the exits;
  9. All exits shall provide continuous means of aggress to the exterior of a building or to an exterior open space loading to a street and
  10. Exits shall be so arranged that they may be reached without passing through another occupied unit, except in the case of residential buildings.

Types of exits

  1. Exits shall be either of horizontal or vertical type. An exit may be doorway, corridor, passageways to an internal stair case or external stair case, ramps or to a verandah anchor terraces which have access to the street or to roof of a building. An exit may also include a horizontal exit leading to an adjoining building at the same level and
  2. Lifts and excalators shall not be considered as exits.

Number and Size of Exits - The requisite number and size of various exits shall be provided, based on the population in each room area and floor based on the occupant load, capacity of exits, travel distance and height of buildings.

Arrangement of Exits - Exits shall be so located so that the travel distance on the floor shall not exceed 22.5 m. for residential, educational, institutional and hazardous occupancies and 30 m. for assembly, business, mercantile, industrial and storage occupancies. Wherever more than one exit is required for a floor of a building, exits shall be placed as remote from each other as possible. All the exits shall be accessible from the entire floor area at all floor levels.

Occupant Load - The population in rooms, areas of floors shall be calculated based on the occupant load given in Table- 10.

Capacity of Exits - The capacity of exits (doors and stairways) indicating the number of persons that could be safely evacuated through a unit exit width of 50 cm. shall be as given in Table - 1 1.

For all buildings there shall be a minimum of two staircases. They shall be of an enclosed type stairway.

At least one of them shall be on the external walls of buildings and shall open directly to the exterior, interior open space or to any open place of safety.

The following minimum width provisions shall be made for stair-ways ;

Residential Buildings (dwelling) 1.00 m
   Note - For Row housing with two storeys the minimum width shall be 0.75m
Residential Hotel Buildings 1.50 m
Assembly buildings like auditorium Theaters and  Cinemas & Educational. 1.50 m
Institutional Building like hospital.-
   Up to 10 beds 1.5 m
   More than 1 0 beds 2.0 m
All other buildings 1.5 m.

TABLE -10
Occupant Load

Sr. No Group of Occupancy Occupant Load Gross Area* in m2/persons
1 Residential 12.5
2 Educational  04.00 
3 Institutional 15 +
4

 Assembly:

  

a) with fixed or loose seats and dance floors

 0.6 ++

b) without seating facilities including dining rooms

 1.5 ++
5 Mercantile :   

a) Street floor and sales basement

 3 

b) Upper sale floors

 6
6

Business and industrial

 10
 7

Storage

 30
 8 Hazardous 10
* The gross area shall mean plinth area or covered area. 
+ Occupant load in dormitory portions of homes for the aged, orphanages, insance asylums, etc. where sleeping accommodation is provided shall be calculated at not less than 7.5 m2. gross area/person.
++ The gross area shall include, in addition to the main assembly room or space, any occupied connecting room or space in the same storey or in the storeys above or below where entrance is common to such rooms and spaces and they are available for use by the occupants of the assembly space. No deductions shall be made in the gross area for corridors, closets or other sub-divisions the area shall include all space serving the particular assembly occupancy.

TABLE -11
Occupants per Unit Exit Width

Sr. No.

 Group of Occupancy  Number of stairways  Occupants Doors
1. Residential 25 75
2. Educational 25 75
3. Institutional 25 75
4. Assembly 60 90
5 . Business 50 75
6. Mercantile 50 75
7. Industrial 50 75
8. Storage 50 75
9. Hazardous 25 40

Other Requirements of Individual Exits - The detailed requirements of individual exits are given in regulation No. 19.4.1. to 19.4.6.

Doorways:

  1. Every exit door way shall open into an enclosed stairway, a horizontal exit, on a corridor or passage way providing continuous and protected means of egress;
  2. No exit doorway shall be less than 100 cm. in width. Doorways shall be not less than 200 cm. in height. Doorways for bathrooms, water closet, stores etc. shall be not less than 75 cm. wide;
  3. Exit doorways shall open outwards, that is away from the room but shall not obstruct the travel along any exit. No door, when open, shall reduce the required width of stairway or landing to less than 90 cm. Overhead or sliding doors shall not be installed.
  4. Exit door shall not open immediately upon a flight or stairs, a landing equal to at least the width of the door shall be provided in the stairway at each doorways, level of landing shall be the same as that of the floor which it serves ;
  5. Exit doorways shall be openable from the side which they serve without the use of a key.

Revolving Doors:

  1. Revolving doors shall not be used as required exits except in residential, business and mercantile occupancies, but. shall not constitute more than half the total required door width ;
  2. When revolving doors are considered as required exit way the following assumptions shall be made;
  1. Each revolving door shall be credited one half a unit exit width ; and
  2. Revolving doors shall not be located at the foot of a stairway. Any stairway served by a revolving door shall discharge through a lobby or foyer.

Stairways

  1. Interior stair shall be constructed of non-combustible materials throughout;
  2. Interior staircase shall be constructed as a self contained unit with at least one side adjacent to an external wall and shall be completely enclosed;
  3. A staircase shall not be arranged round a lift shaft unless the latter is entirely enclosed by a material of fire-resistance rating as that for type of construction itself. For buildings more than 15 m. in height, the staircase location shall be to the satisfaction of Chief Fire Officer, Nagpur Fire Brigade.
  4. Hollow combustible construction shall not be-permitted.
  5. The minimum width of an internal staircase shall be 100 cm.
  6. The minimum width of treads without nosing shall be 25 cm. for an internal staircase for residential buildings. In the case of other buildings the minimum treads shall be 30 cm. The treads shall be constructed and maintained in a manner to prevent slipping.
  7. The maximum height of riser shall be 20 cm. in the case of residential buildings and 15 cm. in the case of other buildings. They shall be limited to 12 per flight. For low income housing scheme in narrow plots, the riser may be provided in one flight.
  8. Handrails shall be provided with a minimum height of 90 cm. from the centre of the tread,
  9. The minimum unobstructed head room in a passage under the landing of a staircase and under the staircase shall be 2.2 m.
  10. No living space, store or other fire risk shall open directly into the staircase or staircases.
  11. External exit door of staircase enclosure at ground level shall open directly to the open spaces or can be reached without passing through any door other than a door provided to form a draught lobby.
  12. In the case of assembly, institutional, residential, hotels, industrial and hazardous occupancies, the exit sign with arrow indicating the way to the escape route shall be provided at a height of 0.5 m. from the floor level on the wall and shall be illuminated by electric light connected to corridor circuits. All exit way marking signs should be flush with the wall and so designed that no mechanical damage shall occur to them due to moving of furniture or other heavy equipments. Further all landings of floor shall have floor indication boards indicating the number of floor. The floor indication board shall be placed on the wall immediately facing the flight of stair sand nearest to the landing. It shall be of size not less than 0.5 x 0.5 m.
  13. In case of single staircase it shall terminate at the ground floor level and the access to the basement shall be by a separate staircase. Wherever the building is served by more than one staircase, one of the staircase may lead to basement levels provided the same is separated at ground level by either a ventilated lobby or cut-off screen wall without opening, having a fire resistance of not less than 2 hours with discharge point at two different ends or through enclosures. It shall also be cut off from the basement areas at various basement levels by a protected and ventilated lobby/lobbies. The staircase shall be lighted and ventilated and the minimum size of openings on walls abutting to open spaces shall be 0.3 sq. m. per landing.

Fire escape or external stairs

For buildings above 15 m. in height fire escape stairs shall be provided subject to the following conditions :

  1. Fire escape shall not be taken into account in calculating the evacuation time of building
  2. All fire escapes shall be directly connected to the ground;
  3. Entrance to fire escape shall be separate and remote from the internal staircase
  4. The route to fire escape shall be free of obstructions at all times, except a doorway leading to the fire escape which shall have the required fire resistance;
  5. Fire escape shall be constructed of non-combustible materials;
  6. Fire escape stairs shall have straight flights not less than 7.5 cm. wide with 15 cm. treads and risers not more than 20 cm. The number of risers shall be limited to, 16 per flight.
  7. Handrail shall be of height not less than 90 cm.

Spiral stairs (fire escape) - The use of spiral staircase shall be limited to low occupant load and to a building of height 9 m. unless they are connected to platforms, such as balconies and terraces to allow escapes to pause.

A spiral fire escape shall be not less than 150cm. in diameter and shall be designed to give adequate headroom. 19.4.6. Ramps:

(1) Ramps for pedestrians -

  1. Ramps with a slope of not more than 1 in 10 may be substituted for and shall comply with all the applicable requirements of required stairways as to enclosure, capacity and limiting dimensions. Ramps shall be surfaced with approved non-slipping material ;
  2. The minimum width of the ramps in hospitals shall be 2.25 m;
  3. Handrails shall be provided on both sides of the ramp;

(2) Ramps for basesment or storeyed parking - For parking spaces in a basement and upper floors, at least two ramps of adequate width and slops shall be provided preferably to the opposite ends. Such ramps may be permitted in the side and rear marginal open spaces after leaving sufficient space for movement of fire fighting vehicles.

Corridors :

  1. The minimum width of a corridor shall not be less than 90 cm. in the case of 2 storey row housing residential building and 150 cm. in the case of other building and actual width shall be calculated based on the provisions of a regulation No. 19.3,1 to 19.3.3;
  2. In case of more than one main stair case of the building inter connected by a corridor or other enclosed space, there shall be at least one smoke stop door across the corridor or enclosed space between the doors in the enclosing walls of any two staircases.

The passages (covered or uncovered) including an arcade, a courtyard, a porch or portico, a mezzanine floor, loft, spaces to left open to sky in accordance with Building or Zoning Regulations, in any premises shall not be used for any other purpose than the one permissible and in particular the space to be left open to sky, including the space on which arcade is permitted, shall not be used for putting up. The las (movable or immovable temporary shops) or permanent or temporary encroachments such as projecting steps or stacking of goods and parking of vehicles etc. So that pedestrians can freely use it as foot-paths.

Refuge Area 

For all buildings exceeding 15 m. in height except multifamily dwellings, refuge area shall be provided.

Refuge area shall be provided on the external walls as contilever projection or in any other manner. (which will not be covered in F.S.I.) with a minimum area of 15 sq. m.

Lifts :

  1. All the floors shall be accessible for 24 hours by the lifts. The lifts provided in the buildings shall not be considered as a means of escape in case of emergency;
  2. Grounding switch at ground floor level to enable the fire service to ground the lift cars in any emergency shall also be provided;
  3. The lift machine room shall be separate and no other machinery shall be installed therein.

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