ClearView operate to Fire Door regulations to ensure the work we carry out is fully compliant. We are certified by the International Fire Consultants who audit our installation work a minimum of 4 times per year.
The following regulations although not exhaustive aims to give an overview of statutory requirements that must be adhered to that form part of the requirements for fire doors.
The Regulatory reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 sets out the requirements of the responsible person pertaining to fire safety planning and mitigation for the risk as per 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 doors. Including:
Duties under the Order
The duties under the order also state that maintenance or repair on the premises or safety of the premises is legally known as a responsible person.
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.
Regulation 38 sets the requirements for providing fire safety information regarding the design and construction of the building. The information must be provided to the responsible person at the completion date of the works.
Approved document B has two volumes, volume one provides technical guidance for dwellings such as flats as of 2019, and volume two is for all other building types. The headings below are some of the technical regulations pertaining to fire doors. Fire doors must be fitted in blocks of flats, most commercial properties and sheltered housing in the UK.
Fire doorsets
For the purpose of the document a fire doorset is defined as ‘a door or shutter which, together with its frame and furniture as installed in a building, is intended (when closed) to resist the spread of fire and/or gaseous products of combustion and meets specified performance criteria to those ends.’
Fire doorsets must be classified with the appropriate standards such as, BS EN 13501-2 (Fire classification of construction products and building elements). They must also be tested with regards to the European methods to the standards below:
The testing is to ensure that the fire doorsets work as designed to restrict the spread of fire and smoke within a building and thus provide protection to people using escape routes.
Responsibility for compliance
‘People who are responsible for building work (e.g. agent, designer, builder or installer) must ensure that the work complies with all applicable requirements of the Building Regulations. The building owner may also be responsible for ensuring that work complies with the Building Regulations. If building work does not comply with the Building Regulations, the building owner may be served with an enforcement notice.’
Requirement B1: Means of warning and escape
This requirement states that provisions must be in place to restrict smoke and fire ingress within escape routes. This can be achieved by using the appropriate fire resistant doorsets.
Details should be provided regarding the ‘specifications of any fire safety equipment provided, including routine maintenance schedules.’
Building Bulletin 100: design for fire safety in schools
The publication of Building Bulletin 100 (BB 100) is intended to improve fire safety in schools. The guidance aims to makes schools a much safer place for children. Below are some of the measures that are highlighted in the document:
‘Any door in a fire-resisting or compartment wall will be a fire door, designed to resist the passage of fire and smoke (when closed). Fire doors are used on escape routes to sub-divide long corridors and thus ensure that no more than a short stretch of corridor leading to an exit is likely to become smoke-logged during a fire.’
‘Within the detailed design guidance, fire doors are the normal method for preventing fire/smoke spread into/within escape routes.’
‘In general, doors on escape routes (whether or not the doors are fire doors), should either not be fitted with lock, latch or bolt fastenings, or they should only be fitted with simple fastenings that can be readily operated from the side approached by people making an escape.’
BS 8214:2016 Timber-based fire door assemblies Code of Practice
Recommendations for Timber based fire door assemblies can be found at BS 8214:2016 which is the Timber-based fire door assemblies Code of Practice. The document provides guidance and for the specification, maintenance and installation of fire doorsets. The detail includes the marking of fire-resistant glass, sealing between the door and frame, fire resistance classifications, and smoke and fire seals, to name some elements.
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