Should Fire Door Inspection Be Mandatory?
Fire safety has been a popular talking point recently, causing a lot of businesses to take a long hard look at their own fire safety systems, to ensure they are doing everything they possibly can to keep everyone safe.
Generally, when fire doors are installed, the building owners aren’t obliged to maintain them through regular checks and inspections.
Conversations, driven by the Grenfell fire in January, have been the focal point regarding what business and building owners should be responsible for when it comes to fire safety. Deficiencies in many fire doors are responsible for fires spreading out of control.
So:
What can business owners do to combat this?
Fire doors save lives: but only if they are specified correctly, installed properly, and then diligently maintained. If any of these are overlooked then the fire system is obsolete, wasting time and money, and putting lives at serious risk.
Fire door safety week, which ran between 25th September – 1st October 2017 ran a campaign to engage and educate building owners as well as building users on how to use fire doors properly.
By producing videos on specification and installation, issuing guides to the best practice concerning fire doors, and helping raise awareness, they amassed over 300 supporters to the campaign.
The campaign didn’t aim to point the finger of blame, but instead focused on what people needed to know about fire door safety in order to encourage the best practices.
We are all responsible for reporting signs of wear and tear as well as any misuse of fire doors; such as propping open emergency doors and blocking fire exits.
The recent issues with Grenfell tower has brought the issue before MP’s, who are now involved in the debate surrounding fire door safety. The House of Commons will be host to a showcase of security and safety products, where British fire door brands can demonstrate their expertise.
The event aims to provide a valuable opportunity to raise awareness about fire door maintenance and fire shutters. Manchester brand Sheridan Doors are suppliers of the highest quality installations as well as providing ongoing maintenance.