Start from the hair salon model (free account), or draw your own. A small salon's fire safety is not set by its size alone: the floor it is on and what else is in the building change it. Here an AI put a 56 m² salon model in three places and checked whether it needs extinguishers and exit signs, with the same tools it calls over MCP. Every figure and drawing below is their result. Floors are counted as in Japan, the ground floor being floor 1.
1. The rules
- The use. Hair and barber salons fall under item (15) of Appended Table 1 of the Order for Enforcement of the Fire Service Act (the Fire Service Act Order), "other workplaces" (the Kawasaki City Fire Bureau's notes on the table list hair and barber salons there); the tools file them with offices.
- Extinguishers. Item (15) needs them from 300 m² of total floor area (Fire Service Act Order, Article 10(1)(iii)), and, whatever the total, on a basement, a windowless floor (a floor without enough openings for firefighting) or floor 3 and above when the floor area is 50 m² or more (Article 10(1)(v)). In a building of several uses, the salon's part counts as a building of its own (Article 9).
- Exit signs. Item (15) needs illuminated exit signs only on basements, windowless floors and floor 11 and above (Article 26(1)(i) and (ii)). But exit signs depend on the whole building (Article 9 does not apply to them), and a building of several uses with a restaurant or a shop in it (item (16)(a)) needs them on every floor. On the evacuation floor (the floor with a door straight out to the ground), if the exit is visible from every part of the rooms within 20 m, the exit-door signs may be left out (Regulation for Enforcement of the Fire Service Act, Article 28-2).
- Unlit exit signs. Items (1) to (16) need them, unless the exit is visible from every part of the rooms within 30 m.
2. What was done
- The model is a hair salon of 8 × 7 m (56 m² measured to the centre lines of the walls): the waiting area by the entrance, behind partitions the work room with six styling stations and two shampoo units, and at the back the staff room, the stock and laundry room and the toilet.
- The same salon went in three places: on the ground floor of an office building, on floor 3 of that building, and on the ground floor of a building with a restaurant in it.
- The AI checked it with
check_space: the extinguisher check for the salon's part (56 m² in all), and the exit sign check with the styling and shampoo areas, the waiting area and the staff room as the rooms and the entrance as the way out.
3. What it found
| Where | Extinguishers | Exit signs | Unlit exit signs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground floor of an office building | Not needed | Not needed | Needed |
| Floor 3 of an office building | Needed | Not needed | Needed |
| Ground floor of a building with a restaurant | Not needed | Needed (none left out) | Needed |
- On a ground floor, no extinguisher. The salon's part is 56 m², short of 300 m², and it is not on floor 3 or higher.
- On floor 3, an extinguisher. Of the three places, the 56 m² salon needs an extinguisher only on floor 3, where its floor area is 50 m² or more, and exit signs only in the building with a restaurant. The extinguisher units required (Japan's rating of an extinguisher's capacity) come to less than one, so one extinguisher is enough.
- In a building with a restaurant, exit signs. The whole building falls under item (16)(a) and needs them on every floor. The salon is on the evacuation floor, but the entrance is not visible from some rooms, so the signs cannot be left out.
- The rooms from which the entrance is not visible. The entrance is visible from the waiting area (2.5 m from its farthest point). It is not visible from the north-west corner of the styling area, the shampoo area or the staff room, behind the partitions of the waiting area and the walls. From the farthest point to the entrance, the walk is 8.08 m for the styling area, 7.47 m for the staff room and 6.44 m for the shampoo area.
4. How to ask an AI
This is a 56 m² hair salon on floor 3 of a building; the other floors are offices. Check whether it needs extinguishers, exit signs and unlit exit signs, and what changes if the same salon opens in a building with a restaurant on its ground floor.
5. What this does not check
- How a salon's use is judged can differ between fire departments; in the end, ask the local one.
- Whether a floor is windowless is not checked; a windowless floor needs extinguishers (from 50 m²) and exit signs.
- Automatic fire alarms and the fire prevention manager are not covered; in an item (16)(a) building they depend on the whole building's total floor area and occupant capacity.
- On floor 3 the main exit is the doorway of the direct stairs (stairs that lead straight to the evacuation floor) outside the salon; here the salon's entrance was taken as the exit, and as even that is not visible from some rooms, the unlit exit signs are still needed.
