The Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection: Large Ships) Regulations 1998

Openings in “B” Class divisions

77.—(1) Where a “B” Class division is pierced for the passage of electric cables, pipes, trunks, girders, or beams, or for other purposes, the arrangements shall be such that the effectiveness of the division in resisting fire is not thereby impaired.

(2) The construction of all doors and door frames in “B” Class bulkheads shall provide resistance to fire as well as the passage of flame, as far as is reasonably practicable, equivalent to that of the bulkheads in which the doors are situated.

(3) The number of ventilation openings in “B” Class divisions shall be kept to a minimum and shall be provided as far as is reasonably practicable only in the lower part of a door and fitted with a grille constructed of steel or under a door except that such openings shall not be provided in a door in a “B” Class division forming a stairway enclosure. The net area of any such opening or openings shall not exceed 0.05 square metre and in no case shall a gap under a door exceed 25 millimetres. The grille shall be capable of being manually closed from each side of the door.

(4) Every door in a “B” Class bulkhead which forms a stairway enclosure or part thereof shall be self-closing.

(5) Hold-back arrangements may be fitted to doors to which paragraph (4) refers provided that such arrangements—

(a) have remote release fittings of a type which in the event of disruption of the control system will automatically close the doors; and

(b) will permit each door to be closed manually.