How to Safely and Legally Hold Fire Doors Open
Fire doors are a key safety feature in many buildings, essential for preventing the spread of fires and smoke. In our latest post we look at how its possible to safely and legally hold fire doors open without adversely affecting fire door performance.
What are Fire Doors?
Fire doors are specifically designed to act as effective barriers that prevent the spread of fire and smoke in a building. Fire doors are a statutory requirement in many UK buildings including blocks of flats, commercial and public buildings, mixed use properties and rooms where there is a high risk of fire (such as boiler rooms and computer equipment rooms).
Fire doors slow the spread of fire by acting as a heat barrier. They provide occupants with time to escape by protecting escape routes and can help to restrict fire damage to limited areas. The important role of fire doors is clearly defined in the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022.
In the UK, fire doors are made from a variety of materials including timber, steel, aluminium and gypsum. They sometimes include fire resistant glass vision panels and all of the door components including hinges, frames and closers must also be fire resistant.
What is the Purpose of Fire Doors?
As noted - the primary purpose of fire doors is stop the progress of fire. This function serves to save lives by enabling people to escape and supports fire-fighting activity. Fire doors are an essential element in a building?s passive fire protection system.
Fire doors are specifically designed to withstand and resist the spread of fire for at least 30 minutes. A key element in fire door installation and design is the use of intumescent seals. Incorporated into the fire door frame, this form of seal responds to heat by expanding, forming a thermal barrier and preventing smoke from moving across the door boundary.
Fire doors must be installed in accordance with manufacturers instructions and undergo routine inspection. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 made it a legal requirement for those responsible for all multi-occupied residential buildings in England, with storeys over 11 metres in height, to carry out quarterly checks on all fire doors in common areas and annual inspections on flat front doors.
UK Fire Door Safety Survey
A survey of 1000 UK office workers, carried out by health and safety training provider CE Safety, has revealed concerning statistics about fire door safety in the UK.
The Fire Door Inspection Scheme found that 75% of UK fire doors do not meet required safety standards and 31% of fire doors were found to be improperly installed. Worryingly, 35% of those surveyed had not been shown the fire exit routes in their workplaces.
The survey also showed how 41% of office workers had seen fire doors being improperly wedged open and 17% reported seeing fire doors locked.
Workplace Fires in the UK
Although the number of workplace fires has declined by around 25% over the past 10 years these incidents continue to be a significant safety threat to businesses.
Number of Workplace Fires in England over the past 10 years.
| Year | Total workplace fires |
|---|---|
| 2014/15 | 9,458 |
| 2015/16 | 9,347 |
| 2016/17 | 9,142 |
| 2017/18 | 9,000 |
| 2018/19 | 8,623 |
| 2019/20 | 8,133 |
| 2020/21 | 6,134 |
| 2021/22 | 7,345 |
| 2022/23 | 7,439 |
| 2023/24 | 7,033 |
The most common cause of workplace fires in the UK is faulty or misused electrical equipment, responsible for around 19% of incidents.
The businesses at highest risk of workplace fires tend to be industrial with 24% of fires occurring at industrial premises. These include manufacturing facilities, mining and quarrying operations, vehicle repair workshops, warehouses, storage facilities and other industrial premises.
Food and drink related locations account for 19% of workplace fires. These include commercial kitchens, restaurants, cafes and takeaway food outlets.
Retail premises account for 17% of workplace fires. These include supermarkets, shops, shopping centres and retail parks.
Can You Put a Door Stopper on a Fire Door?
As a rule, standard door stoppers or retainers should never be used on fire doors. Fire doors are fitted with automatic door closing mechanisms to ensure they remain closed and therefore provide a robust fire-prevention barrier. Propping a fire door open, with a standard door wedge or similar device, violates fire safety regulations and puts people and property at risk. Wedging fire doors open is known to have caused a chimney effect, causing fire to spread very quickly and destroying entire buildings.
Impact and Cost of Wedged Open Fire Doors
The following table summarises a collection of serious incidents related to wedged open doors.
| Location and Responsibility | Impact and Cost |
|---|---|
| Rosepark Nursing Home | 14 Deaths |
| St Michael?s Mount Nursing Home, Liverpool | Fine: £44K |
| Donwell House, Tyne and Wear | Severe damage, resident hospitalised £410K fine. |
| Ambassador Care Home, Blackpool | Fine: £35K |
| Humber Landlord Keith Newsum. | Landlord fined £100K and jailed for 5 months. |
| Mike Billings, Landlord, Norwich | 21 Months imprisonment, fine and compensation. Tenant suffered 80% burns |
| Abbey College, Malvern | Fine: £44K |
| Burrows House, London | Fine: 43K. Residents hospitalised |
| The Old Rectory Care Home, Cardiff | Two deaths and a fine of £7K |
| White Swan, Arundel | Fine: £25K |
| Radnor Hotel, London | Fine: 200K |
| Redmount Nursing and Residential Home | One death and fine of £110K |
| Tesco, Barnet | Fine: £95K |
Although people know and understand the important fire safety function of fire doors they continue to be propped or wedged open. The Fire Service has previously reported that 64% of premises they visited had fire doors wedged open.
Why are Fire Doors Wedged Open?
Closed fire doors can be a hindrance to accessibility or present a roadblock in busy thoroughfares where people are laden with luggage. Fire doors can be heavy and very difficult to open, especially for frailer people. And for people pushing trolleys, wheelchairs or carrying trays of drinks, fire doors can be a very difficult barrier to get through.
But wedging or propping fire doors open breaches fire safety regulations, invalidates insurance requirements and most importantly, puts people?s lives in danger.
What?s needed is a reliable, legally compliant fire door retainer that will hold doors open when required but automatically allows the doors to close in the event of a fire.
Our Doorsense Fire Door Retainer will hold a fire door open, in any position, and will automatically close when a fire alarm sounds, or at a set time.
This simple, rugged device is easily installed by screw fixing to the bottom of the fire door. The device doesn?t adversely affect the integrity or performance of a fire door and fully meets the BS EN 1155 (Electrically Powered Hold Open Devices) standard. Importantly, our DoorSense device uses a flame retardant case that?s specially designed to withstand knocks and bumps, unlike lower quality products on the market.
If you become aware of a fire door that?s being improperly wedged or propped open be sure to raise this serious safety breach with the appropriate people before a disaster occurs.
If you have any questions about our Doorsense Fire Door Retainer, or if you have any special requirements, remember we are here to help. Give us a ca ll on 01273 475500 and we?ll provide you with free, expert advice.
This message was added on Thursday 30th January 2025
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