BCA Technical Guidance Note XXX Issue X XXX

Provision of Turning Facilities on Fire Brigade Vehicle Ac-

cess Roads

Purpose
BCA technical guidance notes are for the benefit of its members and the construction industry, to provide infor-
mation, promote good practice and encourage consistency of interpretation for the benefit of our clients. They are
advisory in nature, and in all cases the responsibility for determining compliance with the Building Regulations
remains with the building control body concerned.

This guidance note is based upon information available at the time of issue and may be subject to change. The
Approved Documents should be consulted for full details in any particular case.

Introduction
Access and facilities for the fire service are addressed under Part B5 of the Building Regulations. This
section includes the provision of suitable access roads, entrances into the building and, where neces-
sary, additional fire-fighting measures within the building.

This guidance note looks specifically at the options available when a dead-end access road forms part
of the approved site plan.

Key Issues and Research

Suitable road access is necessary for the following reasons:

a) the provision of vehicular access for fire appliances to the perimeter of the building or site;
b) the provision of easy and speedy entry to the site and/or the interior of the building for fire-fighters
and their equipment;
c) the provision of and access to sufficient supplies of a fire-fighting medium (usually water).

Guidance

Guidance is contained in Approved Document B2, BS9991 and BS9999. It can be summarised as be-
low:

 A fire appliance must be able to drive to a point which is within 45m distance (measured along the
hose-laying route) of all parts of a dwelling, whether it’s a dwelling house or flat.
 In the case of flats, where the 45m criterion cannot be achieved from the fire appliance, a vertical
dry riser may be installed within the building as a compensatory feature. In such cases, 45m can
be measured from the dry riser outlet position, however, the maximum distance from the fire ap-
pliance to the dry riser inlet connection is restricted to 18m.
 An access road should be designed with suitable vehicle turning facilities such that an appliance
isn’t required to reverse further than 20m. This is detailed in Diagram 1

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 Diagram 1: Turning Facilities

Interpretation of Requirements

Whilst the above requirements can often be achieved, situations sometimes arise where a dead-end
road exceeds 20m but, from a point situated 20m from a turning facility, all parts of the dwelling(s) are
within the reach of a 45m hose. This is shown in Diagram 2:

Diagram 2: Limit of road length for fully extended hose (not to scale)

Such an arrangement is considered to be in accordance with the recommendations of Approved Docu-

ment B without any additional road markings. However, it should be borne in mind that the road needs
to be constructed with a load bearing capacity of 12.5 tonnes for at least the first 20m. It is further rec-
ommended that this enhanced strength be provided to the extremity of the drive if there is no visual in-
dication of the limit of the enhanced strength.

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Alternative Options

Provision is made in BS9991 paragraph 23.2 for increasing hose lengths to dwellings and three storey
flats if a sprinkler system (compliant with BS9251:2005) is installed throughout the building and the fire
brigade response time is fast. It considered reasonable to adopt these recommendations for schemes
assessed under Approved Document B. As follows:

Where attendance time of the local fire and rescue service is expected to be no more than ten minutes:

 the distance between the fire appliance and any point within the house (in houses having no floor
more than 4.5 m above ground level and having a sprinkler system throughout) may be up to
90m;

 the distance between the fire and rescue service pumping appliance and any point within the
house or flat may be up to 75m (in houses or flats having one floor more than 4.5 m above
ground level and a sprinkler system installed throughout).

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