Would Your Fire Doors Pass This Test?

DDS InternationalFire Safety, Health and Safety

This post is part of the “Focus on Health and Safety Audit Questions” series. A series which focuses on questions asked by our health and safety consultants when conducting a health and safety audit.

Question

Check all internal fire doors are unobstructed, not wedged open, and operating correctly.

Reason for This Question

All fire doors should be unobstructed, free to close automatically and not propped or wedged open in any way. All self closing devices should be operational too.

Possible Answers

Red: Internal fire doors not able to close due to physical damage
Amber: Doors propped open by fire wedges/extinguishes – removed immediately
Green: No wedged or propped open fire doors found during the audit

Common Issues

  • Damaged intumescent strips
  • Damged smoke seals
  • Damaged door frames

Fail Rate

5% of businesses failed this question based on our sample data.

What Are Fire Doors?

Buildings are compartmentalised to delay the spread of fire from one area to another. These compartments are usually linked by fire doors to allow the flow of traffic around the building. Fire doors have two important functions in a fire; when closed they form a barrier to stop the spread of fire and when opened they provide a means of escape.

What Is The Law Regarding Fire Doors?

In order to stay compliant with the Regulatory Reform (Fire safety) Order 2005, building owners must ensure that their fire safety measures including escape doors and fire doors are maintained as fit-for-purpose. Article 17 of the Fire Safety Order places a legal obligation on them to have “a suitable maintenance regime to ensure relevant equipment is kept in an efficient state”. This section of the legislation not only refers to alarms, extinguishers and means of escape but also the fire doors that protect escape routes by resisting fire and smoke spread and the escape doors used to reach a place of safety.

This post is part of the “Focus on Health and Safety Audit Questions” series. A series which focuses on questions asked by our health and safety consultants when conducting a health and safety audit.

Our Solutions

Health and safety audits are available as part of our Health and Safety Management System packages. We also offer full fire safety risk assessments.