Fire Safety Information

Here is a collection of useful information on fire safety and prevention.  Please contact us if you would like some help.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

Under these regulations the onus has changed.  It used to be that the Fire Officer visited the premises and gave a ‘to do list’ to the operator.  When the list had been completed satisfactorily, the Fire Office issued a Certificate.

Howver, now the operator of any premises has the responsibility to conduct or commission a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA). Under the above Fire Saftey Order, all commercial premises are required to conduct a Fire Risk Assessment.

It’s best to employ a professional who will visit the premises and draw up a prioritised ‘to do list’ in a report, highlighting degrees of urgency for specific areas. In my sphere of operation, most reports focus on Fire doors needing to be replaced or upgraded to FD30(S) specification, which is the required standard for nearly all fire doors.

Read the full The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 here.

Fire Doors – New and Existing

Fire safety requires that fire doors are fitted to fine tolerances within a door frame/liner  that is fire door compatible, to ensure good compliance with the various legislation and defined regulations.  Each Fire door leaf, both new and existing, are required to be certificated. Their installation has to be in compliant to ensure that the fire door operates correctly every time it is used.

Hinges, fire door closers, locks and fire door furniture all need to comply plus the installation of the door liner/frame.  Once all that is achieved the cold smoke intumescent strip when fitted must seal on the door liner to ensure the smoke barrier is compliant.

Fire Door Seal – Gap Test

Having a gap between the smoke brush and liner is not compliant and thus is a waste of time, effort and money.  A quick test of the fire door to brush  gap is to slide a credit card around both sides and top of the fire door.  If the brush does not hold the card, the fire door is certainly not compliant.

Fire Glazing in Fire Doors, Transoms and Compartment Walls

Fire Safety requires that the glazing used in the above situations to be specifically approved fire glazing and fitted correctly.  As much importance being placed on the frame, intumescent sealing material and stopping that the glazing is set in as the fire glazing itself.

Generally, for fire door glazing, it is far more preferable to purchase the fire door with the glazing factory installed. There is a good range of glazed fire doors available from various suppliers that should cover most installation requirements.

However, under certain circumstances, fire glazing can be carefully retro-fitted.

An example of this is where a Fire Risk Assessment has identified the use of sub-standard glazing in doors and walls which needs to be replaced.

Upgrading Existing/Old Doors

Unless doors are listed or have an historical value, it is usually impractical and uneconomic to try to upgrade an old panel door to a FD30 door leaf specification.

Where an old door has to be upgraded, there are kits available so long as the door complies with the suppliers specifications.  Generally this covers the thickness of the door styles, bars and panels.  Also the door should be structurally sound with the joints intact along with the door fitting  snugly into its door frame. 

As an alternative there are plenty of fire doors available that have traditional panel designs both in natural wood finishes and painted finishes.

Documentation

This Legislation has a continuing theme of responsibility that covers everybody involved with any aspect of this area of this work.  Therefore it is necessary to record all work carried out under this legislation to record exactly what has been done.

All Abacus Property Services work is documented for the customers Fire File, and we also keep a copy.