Fire safety in converted mills and warehouse apartments: a guide for Manchester building managers

Walk through Ancoats, Castlefield, the Northern Quarter or across the river in Salford and you’ll see some of the finest converted industrial buildings in the country. Cotton mills, warehouses and canal-side buildings that once held machinery and goods now hold apartments, offices, bars and studios.

They are wonderful places to live and work. But a building designed in the 1800s for spinning cotton was never designed to keep residents safe from fire, and the conversion has to make up the difference. That’s why these buildings need a careful, experienced fire risk assessment.

Why converted mills are different

Most modern blocks of flats are built to a “stay put” design. Each flat is a fire-resisting box, and a fire in one flat should be held there long enough for the fire service to deal with it. In a converted building, that protection has to be created inside an existing structure, and it is only as good as the work that was done.

• Original structure. Timber floors, cast-iron columns and steel beams may need protecting so they keep their strength in a fire.
• Large, open floor plates divided into flats or offices, sometimes with long corridors and limited ways out.
• Atriums, lightwells and feature staircases that look great but can carry smoke between floors.
• Services through old walls. Decades of pipes, cables and ducts mean many holes through fire-resisting walls and floors, often hidden above ceilings.
• Mixed use. A bar or restaurant on the ground floor with flats above needs strong fire separation between the two.
• Later additions such as rooftop extensions or new external cladding, which bring their own questions.

What a fire risk assessor checks

A good assessment looks at the building as a whole, not just the communal hallway. In a converted mill, that usually includes:

1. The evacuation strategy. Is the building designed for stay put or simultaneous evacuation, and do the alarm system, signage and resident information all match it?
2. Compartmentation. Are flats, stairs, risers and plant rooms properly separated? Are there gaps around pipes, cables and beams where fire and smoke could pass through?
3. Fire doors. Flat entrance doors and communal doors must close fully on their own and be in good condition. In blocks of flats, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 also require regular checks.
4. Escape routes. Are travel distances reasonable? Are corridors and stairs kept clear, well lit and protected from smoke?
5. Smoke control. Automatic vents and smoke shafts need to work when they’re needed, and need regular servicing.
6. Detection and alarms, including how they are tested, serviced and monitored.
7. Separation from commercial areas such as ground-floor bars, shops or car parks.
8. Management. Who checks what, how often, and how residents are kept informed.

The problems we see most often

• Fire stopping missing or damaged in risers and ceiling voids, often after new cables or pipes have been added.
• Flat entrance doors replaced by residents with doors that aren’t fire doors, or with self-closers removed.
• Smoke vents that haven’t been serviced, or that nobody is sure how to test.
• Bikes, furniture and deliveries left in corridors and stairwells.
• E-bikes and e-scooters charging in flats, corridors or bin stores.
• Residents who don’t know whether they should stay put or leave.

Most of these are straightforward to put right once they’re found. The key is finding them, and that means looking above ceilings and inside risers, not just walking the corridors.

Who is responsible?

In a block of flats, the “Responsible Person” for the common parts is usually the freeholder, the management company or the managing agent acting for them. Since October 2023, the fire risk assessment must be fully recorded in writing, and the person carrying it out must be competent. For a complex converted building, that means someone with real experience of how these buildings behave in a fire.

This guide is a plain-English summary for England and is not legal advice.