Clearview National October 2014 - Issue 155 | Page 50

Fire Safety & Security

Fire Doors
and the Law
Since becoming manager of the
Fire Door Inspection Scheme
two years ago Neil Ashdown
has been asked many times ‘what
is the law regarding fire doors?’
»»In fact, it is probably
the single-most asked question
along, of course, with people
sending him photographs of
fire doors saying ‘does this door
comply with the regulations?’
So, as somebody whose
previous job involved the supply
of certificated fire doors and
hardware to contractors it’s been
both interesting and eye-opening
for him to see the poor state
of fire doors and escape doors
installed in public buildings.
Many of them including sleeping
accommodation for the most
vulnerable people in society such
as hospitals, care homes and
social housing. Here, he shares his
experiences with Clearview.
”Two years in to the job I
can tell you that many building
owners and their maintenance
contractors are wide-open to
prosecution under the Regulatory
Reform (Fire safety) Order 2005,
or Fire Safety Order as its often
referred to. Local Fire & Rescue
Services do prosecute, the fines
are often very punitive indeed and
there are many examples of these
in the news. Sometimes though,
it’s even worse than that, where
the coroner has actually blamed
non-compliant fire doors as a
contributory cause for the loss
of life.
“In order to stay within the
law building owners must ensure
that their fire safety measures,
including fire doors and escape
doors, are maintained as fitfor-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’. As
you would expect this not only
refers to alarms, extinguishers and
means of escape but also the fire
doors that may protect escape
routes by resisting fire and smoke
spread and the escape doors used
to reach a place of safety.

“Legal responsibility is
often shared, and although the
‘Responsible Person’ is usually
the building owner or operator,
contractors that carry out works
or give advice on fire safety
devices also have a legal obligation
as the ‘Competent Person’ under
the Fire Safety Order. Contractors
that carry out works to fire doors
and escape doors must be able
to prove their competence to the
authorities and furthermore have
a duty to ensure any work they do
doesn’t compromise the doors fire
and smoke performance. Often
they don’t realise the onerous

50 » OCT 2014 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M

position they are
in, until of course
something goes
wrong!
“There is a wealth of
information out there and much
of it is free to access. So you can
take precautions to stay within
the law, the Regulatory Reform
(Fire Safety) Order 2005 is
freely available on-line and BS
9999 recommends six-monthly
inspection of fire doors. At the
Fire Door Inspection Scheme we
are always pleased to help and
our education programme will
help you prove your competence
to work and give advice on fire
doors and escape doors.
“The Fire Door Inspection
Scheme (FDIS) was set up in
February 2012 when trade
associations BWF-CERTIFIRE
and the Guild of Architectural
Ironmongers (GAI) began an
initiative to create awareness for
fire