Means of Escape or Fire Doors

Fire doors provide a physical barrier to fire and the gases that they generate. New or recently purchased fire doors will incorporate intumescent strips (expanding seals) that are fitted either to the door frame or to the door itself.  These expand when heated sufficiently so that they fill the gap between the door edges and frame.

Fire doors are also often fitted with cold smoke seals as a barrier to smoke produced at ambient temperatures (e.g. during smouldering fires) that would not be hot enough to heat and expand the intumescent seals.  Therefore, smoke seals are especially important where smoke could threaten escape routes e.g. by reducing visibility.

• There are two main types of doors relating to fire within a building,
• Final fire exit doors which form a means of escape from the building. These are final doors on an escape route which open into a place of safety (i.e. outside the building) and as such are not the same as fire doors used to protect compartments or escape routes.  They should be capable of being opened quickly in an emergency. 
• Internal fire resisting doors, which are designed to limit the spread of smoke and fire. Fire doors should open in the direction of travel in most cases to aid smooth flow of pedestrian traffic.  However, this is not always required where there are less than sixty people expected to use it or where doing so might lead to additional risk e.g. by opening into a busy escape route.
• Corridors, stairs and passageways, which form the means of escape from the building, must be kept clear of obstructions at all times.
• In most cases, internal self-closing fire doors must never be locked shut or wedged open and should be labelled “FIRE DOOR - KEEP SHUT”.
• However, in some cases, the fire risk assessment may identify a need for the internal fire doors to be kept open to aid people with physical disabilities, wheelchair users or very young children. In these cases, doors may be fitted with magnetic hold open devices or equipment such as Doorguards.  All hold open equipment must be checked weekly (and recorded in the Fire Log book) to ensure that fire doors would close and latch completely to provide compartmentalisation in the event of a fire. 
• External escape routes should not be obstructed e.g., by parked vehicles, “FIRE DOOR - KEEP CLEAR” notices should be affixed to external doors, where appropriate.
• All fire exits and routes must be clearly marked by pictogram signage. Where the fire exit or route has changed, for example, during building work, the old signage must be removed, and new routes established to avoid confusion.
• Final exit doors (to the outside) must be easy to open in an emergency. In some cases, to prevent unauthorised exit of pupils/ clients or unauthorised entry special requirements may be necessary, e.g. thumb turn door lock, a high level easily openable bolt.  Thumb turns must have signage in place to indicate direction of turn.  These arrangements MUST be recorded in the fire risk assessment.
• Final exit doors and all doors leading to them must be checked at the start of each working day to ensure that they can easily be opened. All means of escape and fire doors should be checked weekly for defects, obstructions etc. and recorded in the fire logbook.