The regulations pertaining to fire safety doors are constantly changing as new laws and best practice measures are put into place. The current regulations are The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022.
From installation to their daily use and programmes of regular maintenance, fire safety doors are an essential part of the fire safety strategy for your building. These doors are designed to protect property and ultimately help to save lives in the event of a fire. They prevent the spread of smoke and flames and safeguard those individuals who live or work in a building as well as any emergency services personnel who may be called out in the event of a fire. They are also responsible for helping to maintain the structural integrity of a building.
Whether you have commercial premises, a residential building or something in between, it is important to ensure that you remain up to date with any latest changes in the industry regulations.
What are fire safety doors, and what is their role?
A fire safety door is a specialist door which is designed to offer a similar, or the same level of fire protection as those elements of a building that are fixed. It needs to be able to contain smoke, fire and toxic gas for a set amount of time. It should also help to keep escape routes safe.
There are four different ratings of fire doors. At the minimum a fire door should be able to withstand 30 minutes of fire. Fire doors have an “FD” rating, ranging from FD30 to FD120. The number indicates the length of time the door should be able to withstand a fire.
The new regulations
The updated regulations, which are known as the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into effect on 23rdJanuary 2023. They were put in place as a direct result of the public enquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire in order to ensure that a fire on that scale never happens again.
In broad terms, the regulations require that any person or persons with responsibility for certain types of residential buildings are required to notify the local fire and emergency services with information about that building. This includes high-rise residential buildings, those residential buildings with storeys that stand over 11 metres in height and any residential buildings that are multi-occupied and have two, or more, types of domestic premises. The regulations cover all of the requirements pertaining to signage, the maintenance of lifts and any essential equipment for firefighting, and floor plans. There are also changes relating to fire doors.
The new rules on fire doors require:
- Checks must be undertaken on all common area fire doors in these buildings (including any self-closing doors) on a quarterly basis.
- Checks must be undertaken on all entrance doors to individual flats (including those with self-closing devices). This should be done on an annual basis.
The person with responsibility should ensure that all of the residents are given information about the importance of fire doors and the role they play in the overall fire safety of the building. This is in order to ensure that they understand the importance of keeping fire doors, and therefore their building safe. This information should also explain the importance of allowing the responsible person to have access to entrance doors in order to carry out these checks.Â
The regulations suggest this information is provided to new residents when they move in and to all residents once a year. It should cover the necessity of keeping fire doors closed, not tampering with fire doors or self-closing devices. Finally, it should also notify residents of the importance of reporting any faults or damage that they see.
