Starting from your own front door, you should ensure that the entire route towards all possible exits from the building, including unusual ways to exit, like jumping from a balcony or window, are unobstructed by.... well, by anything at all.
The hazard is not only that objects left in the stairwells could catch fire, but also that one could, in fleeing the building, trip over such an object. This is more likely if visibility is impaired by smoke, and if the object could fall or roll away from where it had been left.
slightly OT, but I was at a friend's place recently and realized that a key is needed to open the front door of the building from the inside, in order to leave.
How is this allowed? How are tenants supposed to remember to find the keys while waking in the middle of the night to a raging fire?
Yes, happened to me, too, recently, and the host had to keep walking up and down the stairs all evening, as more guests arrived later, and other guests left the party earlier.
I'm guessing that this is an older building. I think the fire regulations have changed, but not retroactively so.
After nearly 30 years here I'm _still_ not used to the fact that if you lock the apt door you're not able to open the door without a key.
Most people living in houses do not leave shoes outside their front door so I really do not understand why this is such a common practice with apartment dwellers. Many houses do not have an entrance hall which is any bigger than that found in an apartment.
It can be a big challenge to find suitable fittings for the entrance hall.
Sonetimes the built in units provided are so impractical you wonder why they bothered with them at all.
Not allowed - the main escape route must be easily opened in case of danger, and if you need it closed from the outside, you can use a panic lock on the inside. However, most older buildings, specially renting apartments, have dangerously not been updated into the new guidelines.
The apartment in Zürich Oberland I mentioned previously had the same problem, so to fix it, the landlord basically disabled the lock - it would never close. So, no real surprise why my basement was broken into...
When the law changed in the 90's, they gave a deadline to update older buildings (unfortunately I do not know how long, since I only have the more recent laws around me). You could bring it up to the landlord. Since no one usually says anything, landlords tend to ignore the problem. If no one complains, it doesn't exist...
We have a shoe rack and a large ladder on our landing. There is lots of space and as we are the only people on the floor, no one has to walk by or be bothered by our shoes. We've heard nothing in 7 years about it and I don't expect we will.
On a different subject - our neighbor had a pair of brand new work boots stolen from outside his door. So this might be another compelling reason to keep the shoes inside.
One of the old properties I lived in in the UK solved this simply by gluing a key into the inside lock - but that only works if the external and internal lock barrels can turn independently.
Thanks for your response, ill recommend to the friend to contact her landlord.
Sometimes the naivete and lack of logical planning in this country full of anal-retentive busybodys just amazes me. The friend and her flatmate have been living there for many years. When I brought up the fact that the door not opening makes the building into a death trap, It was met with blank stares. It's like instead of thinking 'Oh, geez, you're right, that is dangerous, we better ask the landlord about that!' - the mental response is more like 'What? Are you criticizing our Swiss buildings? These were professionally designed and built and are managed and maintained by mighty Swiss profis. And of course, we don't make mistakes..':roll eyes:
Swiss Building law is... terrifying.
But not in the sense you probably think.
Swiss Building "law" differs from Kanton to Kanton, from city to city. IT DRIVES ME FREAKING INSANE. Until the last revision of Fire Protection, a door burned differently in Bern than in Zürich (it took longer in Bern, which led to a lot of xenophobe jokes against Bern because... Swiss... ).
Because there is so much sources for the law: federal, cantonal, city, plus all the Norms for each department, it leads to chaos. If everyone has a saying, it leads to bloody chaos. The excuse that it's because of language and cultural reasons? Absolute nonsense. I studied Building law in 3 European Union countries, which had 3 completely different languages (Latin-Germanic-Uralic) and at least 2000km in between, and wouldn't you know, it kinda followed very similar lines. Most had way better defined and advanced (and constricting) lines when it concerns safety, fire protection, and accessibility than Swiss Building law.
Sometimes professionals in the field themselves are not aware of what the new law is. Sometimes we confuse laws (I went into full mental meltdown on the day I had to deliver a project in Zürich, thinking I had made a very big mistake, only to realize that I was thinking about the law in St. Gallen, and all was well). There is a complete disregard and disrespect towards architects - who are thought as glorified draftsmen - and people believe they could build without any kind of credentials (newsflash, they actually can...). This basically comes from a big lack of a supervising agency, mixed with a huge lack of self-control, mixed with a very very very big "I don't want to get my hands dirty, someone else will be responsible for that", and a ridiculous sense of national pride and "all that is Swiss is great and no way we are changing the status quo".
It's the little Dachshund thinking it can take down the bear.
The most horrible part is you trying to be a good architect, having to fight with claws and fangs to keep within the law, only to be blocked by clients who complete disrespect my profession, or dealing with a complete mafia like setting when it comes to getting the building built. And then having both owners and renters pissing on your care for the law, and going against it.
*rant over*