Fire doors are installed within buildings for two reasons – to protect any person who happens to be inside the building when there is a fire, and to protect the building itself. A good fire door will have been constructed to a specific standard and a specific timeframe that it can withstand fire and smoke. A fire door is designed to slow down the spread of fire and smoke, protecting those inside the building who can get behind a fire door and slowing the damage a fire is causing to a building. Fire doors block off routes for fire and allow for escape and for a fire to be suppressed by fire crews. Without them, fires within residential properties would cause much more damage.
Fire safety within residential properties is so important. When there is a fire in a multi-occupants residential building, the fire doors and other safety measures have to be spot on to protect the people who live there, as well as the building itself. As we saw in recent time with the Grenfell fire and loss of life caused there, as well as the ongoing inquiry into what actually happened with the cladding and fast spread of fire, it is so important to have the right fire safety equipment. Without it, you can never have peace of mind and have residents that sleep soundly at night, and that is what is important.
Fire doors are deemed a necessity within any domestic properties that are of two-storeys and have a garage and door leading to the home. They are a requirement in a renovated property or new-build project where the property has three or more storeys (in these cases there must be a fire door installed for every liveable room that comes off the stairwell. If you are installing fire doors within residential properties, you should be looking for FD30 fire doors as a bare minimum. These are fire doors that can withstand fire and smoke for at least 30 minutes. In properties with large numbers of residents you need to ensure that fire doors are maintained well, as a fire in one apartment could quickly spread to the rest of the building in the worst-case or contained within that one apartment if the fire door performs well.
If you are the person responsible for fire safety within a residential property, you’ll understand that it is vital that you have a secure grip on all aspects of fire safety within the building. This includes the installation and regular maintenance of fire doors in the required places, the provision of other types of fire safety equipment and the proper signage and escape route planning that all residents understand in order to know their roles in the event of a fire. It is your legal responsibility to do this, and you should look for professional expertise in fire safety to make this happen. Hire suppliers of fire doors that have a history of success and knowledge in the field of fire doors for residential properties and speak to fire safety experts on the best way to lay out the building for optimal performance in this area.
Comments are closed.