Fire doors/glazing
appointed to undertake the work. As a result, it is generally carried out by skilled joiners who are not necessarily aware of the requirements for fire doors, which can result in the correct UKAS accredited products being fitted in a way that does not meet the requirements for effective compartmentation. This situation is rarely picked up before
handover and the opening of the building, in part because work can be self certified by sub contractors. With the main contractor then satisfied that the work has been completed by a competent person, building control officers do not check every fire door to assess whether they are fit for purpose. While this approach to contract delivery is not borne out of deliberate corner cutting, it still results in new buildings having unnecessary fire safety flaws to be remedied. The second major reason for fire doors being in the wrong condition to restrict the spread of a fire is the assumption that, if installed correctly, they continue to be adequate. This means they will be managed in a continually non compliant state. Doors are the one element of passive fire protection that are active, given the fact that they are regularly opened and closed, making them liable to wear and tear damage that leaves them in need of repair or replacement. To take just one example: a hospital
will typically have hundreds of fire doors, with many of them bashed by trolleys on an hourly basis, perhaps crudely wedged open
to allow people through or even vandalised. All of those scenarios can result in the doors and the integrity of the compartmentation being damaged, reducing the amount of time it takes fire to spread in a setting in which evacuation is particularly challenging. Even something seemingly as minor as a door becoming slightly misaligned to create a gap around the leaves or a section of smoke strip coming loose can have serious consequences. The type of wear and tear fire doors suffer
may be slightly different in care homes, halls of residence, office blocks and apartment buildings, but the issue is essentially the same. How can you maintain all the doors in the right condition, particularly if your only resource is a busy general maintenance team or caretaker?
Culture and resourcing
These problems are not insurmountable but, given the amount of planning involved to deal with them in any large building or estate, it is likely to involve a change in culture. Organisations must learn how important doors and glazing are to fire safety, and allocate sufficient budget to ensure the right products are specified on day one, and then installed and maintained in such a way that they remain effective. Putting adequate resources into fire doors and glass will assist in maintaining
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www.frmjournal.com MAY 2018
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