> it's just good policy
Is there any empirical data on the safety benefits of a second stairwell?
Is there any empirical data on the safety benefits of a second stairwell?
That being said - when in doubt, I favor more regulation for safety, not less.
Death and injury frequencies. Anecdotes of preventable deaths, e.g. where one stairwell was not enough versus where a corridor separating two stairwells became, itself, an obstacle. Drill simulations.
We should have have some basis for the rule. (If we don't, I'd support scrapping it.)
Table 1.2 shows a breakdown of fire deaths per 100 fires. US 0.3 France, Germany 0.1 Greece, UK, Belgium 0.2 Poland, Denmark, Slovakia 0.4
So it's a bit of a mixed bag. The reported average was 0.5 (report didn't cover every country). Sadly Canada wasn't in the table.
Japan at 3.8 was a bit of a surprise.
1. https://ctif.org/world-fire-statistics 2. https://ctif.org/sites/default/files/2022-08/CTIF_Report27_E...