Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service

In fire safety we need to make sure that we're ready for the worst case that could happen. When a fire happens it could be somewhere that stops people from getting to one of the exits, and in the worst case that would probably be the biggest one.

To allow for this we look at the total number of people that each route out of the building can accommodate and discount the highest one. That way, even if a fire made that way out completely inaccessible everybody would still be able to escape safely using the rest of the exits.

For the same reason, if two exits are close enough together that a single fire could reasonably make them both inaccessible then we count them as a single exit for occupancy purposes. This isn't something that this calculator can account for, so please refer to our our website for more information.