FD30 Fire Doors

FD30s Fire Doors are different to 30-minute fire-rated doors because they are fitted with smoke seals to protect smoke and fire. The smoke seals and the intumescent seals (which expanded when heated) prevent smoke from passing through the gaps in the fire-rated doorsets. According to a fire and rescue report by the UK government report.

“The most common cause of death for fire-related fatalities in the year ending March 2020 (where the cause of death was known) was ‘overcome by gas or smoke’.” (National Statistics, 2020, p.2.2, para 2).

When considering the danger that smoke causes in a fire, you can understand why the FD30s internal fire doors are specified for fire door installations.

Fire Rated Doorsets mean the fire door and the door frame, inclusive of fire door ironmongery. If you are changing existing internal fire doors because they are not compliant with fire door regulations, it is recommended the frames are changed at the same time unless they are fully compliant. Fire doorsets can save costs on labour as they are often supplied pre-assembled, and they or often used for new builds or refurbishment when there are no existing frames to use.

A typical FD30 fire rated doorset may include the following:

• FD30 door leaf
• Fire door frame
• Fire-rated hinges
• Latches and locks
• Doorstop

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 sets out the requirements of the responsible person of fire safety planning and mitigation for the risk as highlighted by a fire risk assessment. Below this information is broken down into further detail:

General Fire Precautions

The general fire precautions of the Order state several requirements that are relevant to fire-rated doors. Including:

• Reduce the risk of fire spreading
• Measures to mitigate fire
• Take steps to ensure means of escape

Duties under the Order

The duties under the order state that the legally known responsible person should undertake maintenance and repair for the fire safety of the premises. Fire door maintenance comes under this order.

Duty to take general fire precautions

The responsible person must ensure the safety of employees and relevant persons who are not employees so far as reasonably practicable. The responsible person may be the employer, building manager, business owner, Managing Director, facilities manager, to name a few examples. Compliance with the Fire Safety Order is their statutory responsibility.

Fire Risk Assessment

The responsible person must carry out a ‘suitable and sufficient risk assessment with mitigation against the risk of injury from fire. General fire requirements must comply with the Fire Safety Order.

The fire risk assessment will cover passive fire protection items such as the need for fire stopping installation or fire door repairs. For more in-depth detail of regulations of FD30 fire doors, please visit our fire door regulations page.

Fire safety regulations state that proper maintenance should be in place for fire doors, which have an essential role in fire safety. Periodic Fire Door inspections and maintenance should be carried out to ensure this potential lifesaving equipment remains in excellent and safe working order. Moreover, six-monthly inspections are recommended in BS999:2017, which is the code of practice for the safety design of buildings.

Fire door inspections and maintenance are both proactive measures to help you comply with the statutory law regarding the duties of the responsible person for fire safety. ClearView is a certified fire door company and a passive fire protection specialist. We maintain all fire doors, including FD30 fire doors, FD60 fire doors, internal fire doors and external fire doors, respectively. Our work fire door work is audited to the highest industry compliance standards by the International fire consultants.

As part of our fire door inspections, we provide a complete report per door, including photographs of any defects. Fire door maintenance includes checking the serviceability of all fire door components, including signage, ironmongery, door leaves, door frames, seals. We also evaluate critical spares parts so that replacement components can be installed at a much cheaper cost with less downtime on the fire door assets if issues are raised.

By choosing an accredited and certified passive fire protection company to maintain your fire doors, you can be assured that your fire doors are regularly checked, following the manufacturer guidelines and current statutory fire legislation.