Start from the small nursery model (free account), or draw your own. Under Japan's Order for Enforcement of the Fire Service Act (the Fire Service Act Order), a small nursery falls in Appended Table 1, item (6)(c)(3), a specified use like a day nursery (Kawasaki City Fire Bureau's notes read the ministry's clause as places that care for infants as a business). Here an AI checked the small nursery of type A for 19 children (a model that opens with a free account), first as a single-storey building of its own and then as if on floor 3 of a building, with the same tools it calls over MCP. Floors are counted as in Japan, the ground floor being floor 1. Every figure and drawing below is the result of that run.
1. The rules
- Extinguishers. Item (6)(c) needs them from 150 m² of total floor area (Fire Service Act Order, Article 10(1)(ii)(a)); on a basement, a "windowless floor" (a floor without enough openings for firefighting) or floor 3 and above, from 50 m² of floor area (Article 10(1)(v)). In a building, the nursery's part counts as a building of its own (Article 9).
- Automatic fire alarms. Item (6)(c) where no one stays overnight needs them from 300 m² of total floor area (Article 21(1)(iii)). A building with a specified use on floor 3 and above (or in a basement) and only one direct stair (stairs that lead straight to the evacuation floor) needs them throughout, whatever its floor area (Article 21(1)(vii)).
- Exit signs. Item (6) needs them on every floor (Article 26(1)). On the evacuation floor (the floor with a door straight out to the ground), they may be left out if an exit is in sight from every part of the rooms within a 20 m walk (Regulation for Enforcement of the Fire Service Act, Article 28-2).
- The fire prevention manager. A specified use needs one from an occupant capacity of 30 (Fire Service Act Order, Article 1-2(3)(i)(b)). For item (6)(c), the count is the staff plus the infants, children and others in their care (Regulation, Article 1-3).
2. What was done
- The model is a small nursery of type A of 13.4 × 9.4 m (121.44 m² to the walls' centres): the infants' room, the two-year-olds' room and the office along the north; the kitchen, toilets, entrance hall, staff toilet and store along the south across the corridor; the entrance to the south. It takes 19 children (3 aged 0, 6 aged 1, 10 aged 2).
- The staff at the busiest time are five nursery teachers, a cook and the head, 7 in all (an assumption).
- The AI checked the extinguishers, the fire alarm and the exit signs with
check_space, as a single-storey building and on floor 3 of a building with one direct stair. It counted the occupant capacity itself, as the tool does not count it for item (6)(c).
3. What it found
As a single-storey building the 121.44 m² small nursery needs neither extinguishers nor an automatic fire alarm, but on floor 3 of a building with one direct stair it needs both.
| Measure | Single-storey | On floor 3 (one stair) |
|---|---|---|
| Extinguishers | Not needed | Needed (1.21 units or more) |
| Automatic fire alarms | Not needed | Needed (the whole building) |
| Exit signs | Needed (none left out) | Needed |
| Fire prevention manager | Not needed (26) | Depends on the whole building |
- Extinguishers. The total floor area is 121.44 m², short of 150 m², so a single-storey building needs none. On floor 3, with 50 m² of floor area or more, they are needed: 121.44 ÷ 100 = 1.21 units or more (extinguisher units are Japan's rating of an extinguisher's capacity).
- Automatic fire alarms. Under 300 m², a single-storey building needs none. On floor 3 of a building with one direct stair, the whole building needs them, whatever its floor area.
- Exit signs. The infants' room, the two-year-olds' room and the office are all behind doors that hide the entrance, so none may be left out. The farthest is the infants' room, 11.91 m from the entrance.
- The fire prevention manager. 7 staff and 19 children: 26 people, under 30, so a single-storey building needs none.
4. How to ask an AI
This is a small nursery for 19 children, 121 m² in all, with 7 staff at the busiest time. Check whether it needs extinguishers, automatic fire alarms, exit signs and a fire prevention manager as a single-storey building, and on floor 3 of a building.
5. What this does not check
- In a building, the whole building becomes a building of several uses (item (16)(a)). Even with two direct stairs, it needs a fire alarm if its total floor area is 300 m² or more (Article 21(1)(iii)), and the fire prevention manager depends on the occupant capacity of the whole building. The tool does not check the fire alarm for item (16)(a), so this article does not count it.
- The means of escape required of nurseries on floor 3 and above (the standards for small childcare), and whether the floor is windowless, are not checked.
- In the end, ask the local fire department.
