Launched in 2013, Fire Door Safety Week is a UK-wide campaign which aims to raise awareness of fire doors. We want to highlight the importance of a fire door and the role they play in keeping people safe. This mass market awareness campaign is run annually, usually in October or November. The campaign aims to promote good practice when it comes to the installation, maintenance and inspection of fire doors.
Who Runs The Fire Door Safety Week?
This UK-based campaign is being run by the British Woodworking Federation. This is in partnership with a number of other organisations including the Home Office’s National Fire Safety Campaign and the London Fire Brigade.
Why Does The Fire Door Safety Week Exist?
It’s important to take the time to consider all the factors that ensure a fire door performs as intended. This includes product manufacture, quality, installation and maintenance, all of which play an integral role.
Improperly specified, maintained or managed fire doors can cause serious harm or even death to building occupants. Also, propping a fire door open during an emergency negates its primary function, keeping smoke from spreading throughout the structure.
The annual Fire Door Safety Week campaign exists to help ensure that everyone, including manufacturers, building users and local fire officials, understands their role. The primary function of the role is to ensure that the nation’s fire doors perform as they should.
Fire Door Safety Week Campaign Objectives
Here are the objectives of Fire Door Safety Week:
- Increase awareness of the importance of fire doors, and bring attention to specific issues such as poor installation and maintenance.
- Encourage building owners and users to determine the condition of their fire doors, report those in need of repair, and take measures to ensure that all reported problems are fixed.
- Create a network of companies in the fire protection industry, with shared interests.
- Educate and engage the building industry, helping everyone understand what the correct specification of a fire door is.
Overlooking Fire Door Safety, Fire Door Safety Week Advice
Although most homeowners and renters consider security and safety important, fire safety is often overlooked. People are six times more likely to report an issue with their heating system than a fire door. In addition to this, they’re twice as likely to report that the toilet isn’t flushing or no hot water is available. Reporting a problem with the building’s fire doors could save a life.
Fire Door Safety Week highlights the importance of fire doors in protecting people and property during fires. It’s a good time to check your building or residence for any fire hazards.
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Presentations You Can Expect At The Fire Door Safety Week
British Woodworking Federation – Fire Door Testing & Certification
During this presentation, we will be listening to Kevin Underwood, the Technical Director of The British Woodworking Federation. Kevin will provide the lovely audience with insights into the certifications of our fire doors. Additionally, Kevin will demonstrate how we can analyse the performance characteristics of fire door sets and assemblies. Along with how these are evaluated through testing.
- Date: Tuesday 1st November 2022
- Time: 2.00pm till 3.00pm
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IFSA – Smoke Control Doors
At the back end of 2018, the Intumescent Fire Seals Association (IFSA) commissioned a special project. This project was set to examine how ‘smoke control’ is affected by threshold sealing.
This review explored the practice of sealing a door assembly’s threshold with impermeable material during both British Standard and European smoke control tests.
In the UK, it is specified in Approved Document B that smoke leakage should be measured at both the head and jambs and not at door thresholds. This is when testing to BS 476-31.1 or EN 1634-3. We do this so that a true measure of air tightness can be obtained.
The codes of practice, such as BS 8214, BS 9991 and BS 9999 refer to an acceptable threshold gap, not exceeding 3mm. On a construction site, it is very difficult to keep this small gap intact. Even if you could maintain a 3mm threshold gap there is no evidence that doing so would reduce smoke leakage.
This presentation will demonstrate smoke leakage past a smoke control door and the effects even a small threshold gap can have on the smoke leakage rate.
- Date: Thursday 3rd November 2022
- Time: 10.00am till 11.00am
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Need To Prevent Fire Doors Slamming?
Fire Doors – The Common Problems Found When Carrying Out Inspections
Andrew Sayer, Lead Assessor for the Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS), will examine the most common defects found by inspectors during onsite visits and discuss how this affects fire doors. Andrew will provide an insight into what inspectors look for when inspecting a fire door, whether it is a new installation or an existing door that has been re-used.
We will also go through how a business owner can identify and report minor problems with their fire doors, who to contact about these issues, and when it’s necessary to hire an expert.
- Date: Thursday 3rd November 2022
- Time: 3.00pm till 4.00pm
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Conclusion
If you’re a business owner or landlord with fire doors, it’s important to be aware of how they are inspected and the issues that may arise during this process. It will help ensure your doors are safe and secure and ensure they comply with current regulations. If you want more information about fire door inspections or would like advice on how to identify any problems with your existing doors, then please get in touch.
What Is A Fire Door?
A fire door is a type of door that is designed to provide protection from the spread of fire and smoke. It helps prevent the spread of smoke, heat and flame by preventing direct contact between rooms in a building. Fire doors are designed to meet specific requirements set by the British Standard. They should be fitted in all escape routes and areas that are considered to be vulnerable to fire, such as corridors and smoke-proof enclosures.