Fire doors are an important way you are kept safe in your home, helping to contain fires and giving you time to escape.
To make sure that your fire doors are working correctly, it is important that you report any suspected issues with fire doors in your home. According to Fire Door Safety Week, people are six times more likely to report a heating system issue than a fire door one, and twice as likely to report a toilet not flushing or no hot water than a fire door issue.
We constantly review the condition of our doors. By fixing or replacing doors that are damaged and ensuring all buildings equipped with fire doors are fit for purpose, you can be confident that we are keeping you safe, especially when you report any issues to us.
At LiveWest we have set up a dedicated project to establish our fire door inspection programme. This includes having a trained, knowledgeable team who will be inspecting our fire doors regularly. There are some simple checks that you can do as well, which you can read more about below.
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Fire doors help to contain fires that have broken out in a specific area, trapping smoke and fire in order to give people time to escape the fire. They also help the fire service to deal with the fire more easily.
If fire doors are damaged or left open, they will not work as designed and could lead to fires being more dangerous.
The image shows how fire doors work by containing the fire inside the space where the fire is. On the other side of the door, you can see there is no fire damage, so the fire door has worked.
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Fire doors have some of the following characteristics:
- A blue sign saying ‘Fire door’ or ‘Keep closed’.
- Door closers.
- Intumescent or smoke seals on the door frame.
In blocks of flats, the front door should be a fire door, as this helps to keep the common areas from fires and smoke. The majority of doors in common areas will be fire doors, and other doors in the property will depend on the design of the building.
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Whilst we are committed to making sure your fire doors are safe, you can play an important role in this by carrying out your own checks.
To help you carry out checks on fire doors in your home, you can use this 5 step check, which tells you what to look out for.
If you spot a problem with a fire door or you are unsure, then report it by getting in touch so that we can send a trained colleague to check it.
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We carry out regular checks to all fire doors. Flat front doors being inspected annually, whilst communal doors will be inspected at least every six months.
Your safety
For more information on how to stay safe in your home, visit Your Safety.