What is a fire door for?
Most of us walk through several fire doors a day without giving them a second thought. They are in office corridors, hotel landings, the stairwells of blocks of flats and the kitchens of care homes. Because they look much like any other door, it is easy to forget that each one is a piece of fire safety equipment, designed and tested to hold back fire and smoke for a set period of time.
When a fire door is in good condition and kept closed, it can buy the minutes people need to get out of a building and give firefighters a safer route in. When it is propped open, damaged or badly fitted, much of that protection is lost. In this post we look at what fire doors do, what the law expects of those who manage them, and five simple checks that anyone can carry out.
What a fire door is for
Fire doors form part of a building's compartmentation, which is the way a building is divided into sections designed to contain a fire where it starts. Walls, floors and ceilings do much of this work, but people still need to move between rooms and along corridors. A fire door allows that movement while keeping the barrier intact whenever it is closed.
In practice, a fire door has three main jobs. It keeps compartments separated from one another, it protects escape routes such as corridors and stairs from smoke, heat and flames, and it helps to stop a fire spreading beyond the room where it began. Most fire doors are rated to resist fire for at least 30 minutes, shown as FD30, with FD60 doors used where a longer period of protection is needed.
More than just the door leaf
A fire door is better thought of as a doorset, an engineered assembly made up of the frame, the door leaf, the hinges, the closer, the latch and any glazing. The doorset was tested as a complete unit, so its performance depends on every part being right. A fire-rated leaf hung in an ordinary frame, or fitted with the wrong hinges, cannot be relied on to perform as it did in testing.
Two components do much of the work around the edges. Intumescent strips, fitted into the frame or the edge of the leaf, expand when heated to close the gap between the door and its frame. Smoke seals, often combined with the intumescent strip in a single profile, stop cool smoke passing around the door in the early stages of a fire, when people are most likely to still be making their way out.
For this reason, fire doors should be installed by a competent installer in line with the manufacturer's instructions, using the ironmongery specified for that doorset. The Fire Protection Association and the British Woodworking Federation both stress the value of third-party certification, which gives confidence that a door has been manufactured consistently to the standard it was tested to.
What the law requires
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the Responsible Person for a building, usually the employer, owner or managing agent, must make sure that fire safety measures are kept in efficient working order and good repair. Fire doors are included in this duty. The Fire Safety Act 2021 confirmed that in buildings containing two or more homes, the Order also covers the structure, external walls and flat entrance doors, so fire risk assessments for these buildings should take those doors into account.
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, which came into force on 23 January 2023, added more specific duties for residential buildings. In blocks of flats over 11 metres high, the Responsible Person must check communal fire doors at least every three months and use their best endeavours to check flat entrance doors at least once a year. In any building with two or more sets of domestic premises, residents must be given information about fire doors, including why they should be kept shut, why self-closers should never be removed or disconnected, and how to report damage or faults.
Failing to meet these duties can lead to enforcement action by the local fire and rescue service and, in serious cases, prosecution.
How often should fire doors be checked?
Outside the fixed requirements for taller residential buildings, how often a door needs inspecting depends on how it is used and what condition it is in. A busy door to a staircase in a school or office takes far more wear than a door to a plant room that is opened a few times a month, so it will need checking more often. Older doors, and doors regularly knocked by trolleys or wheelchairs, also tend to need closer attention. Your fire risk assessment should set out an inspection regime that suits the building, with detailed inspections and repairs carried out by a competent person.
Five checks you can make yourself
The following checks, based on guidance from the Fire Protection Association, are a useful way for staff, landlords and managing agents to spot obvious problems between formal inspections.
- Look for evidence of certification. Modern certified fire doors usually carry a label or a coloured plug on the top edge of the leaf, and sometimes on the hinge edge. Older doors may have no label and may be built differently, for example with a deep 25mm door stop and no seals, so their status may need specialist assessment. Any glass in the door or its surround should be fire-resisting and carry an etched mark, usually in one corner.
- Measure the gaps. The gaps between the leaf and the frame along the top and sides should be even and generally no more than 4mm. A gap gauge is inexpensive and makes this a quick job. Large or uneven gaps can sometimes be corrected by adjusting the door or frame, but a leaf that has warped or bowed will usually need replacing.
- Inspect the seals. Check that intumescent strips and smoke seals are present, continuous and undamaged, and that they have not been painted over. Missing or damaged seals should be reported straight away, as they can seriously reduce how well the door performs in a fire.
- Make sure it closes fully. Open the door fully, let it go and watch it close. It should close completely into the frame and engage the latch without being pushed. If doors are held open on magnetic devices linked to the fire alarm, check during the weekly alarm test that they release and close properly. Closing problems are usually caused by the closer, the hinges, the latch or the way the door hangs.
- Check the hinges. A certified fire door normally needs at least three hinges. They should be firmly fixed with no missing or loose screws, and show no signs of leaking oil or heavy wear. A loose hinge can let the door drop, which affects both the gaps and how well the door closes.
Any problem found during these checks should be recorded and passed to whoever is responsible for maintenance so it can be put right promptly. Some faults, such as a door wedged open, can be dealt with on the spot, while others will need a competent fire door installer.
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Book a fire door inspection Fire risk assessmentsThis article provides general guidance and draws on published guidance from the Fire Protection Association. It does not replace a fire risk assessment or professional advice specific to your premises. Legislation referred to applies in England unless otherwise stated.