Fire Doors

Fire doors create a barrier from fire and toxic smoke. They prevent them from traveling around a building during a fire. This keeps the damage to a small area, allowing for evacuation, stay put, and for safe access for the emergency services.

Fire doors are a legal requirement in all non-domestic properties, such as businesses, commercial premises, and public buildings. They are also required in residential flats and houses of multiple occupancy. As set out by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, building operators in England and Wales should appoint a ‘Responsible Person’ to manage their fire safety precautions. Their legal responsibilities include a duty to reduce the risk of fire spreading within the premises. Fire doors play an important part in reducing this risk in many buildings. These types of buildings should have a fire risk assessment carried out. Fire risk assessments are an in-depth review of the premises. They will highlight any fire risks with recommendations to reduce or eliminate these risks, including where fire doors should be used and what rating they should be just like any other passive fire protection system, it is essential for a fire door to perform as intended in the event of a fire. Any slight alteration to the door or its surroundings can affect the performance. As such, a fire door should be regularly checked to ensure it functions correctly and will perform to its designed standard in the event of a fire.

PPM checks should be carried out at least once every six months although newly occupied buildings may require more frequent checks in the first year of use. Plus, where the fire door is in high use, it should be checked more frequently than other doors in the building, e.g. once per week/month.

From January 2023 For buildings over 11 metres in height the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 called for the responsible person to use best endeavours to undertake checks of fire doors at the entrances of individual domestic premises in the building at least every twelve months. They must also undertake checks of any fire doors in communal areas of the building at least every three months. These checks must include ensuring that the self–closing devices for the doors are working.