Fire Door Safety Week Survey Reveals Surprising Results

Following our recent survey, we found that 60% of people are unaware of how often a fire door should be inspected, and almost a quarter do not know what length of time a standard fire door would give them to escape during a blaze.

We’ve just released these startling statistics after our recent survey in preparation for Fire Door Safety Week (25th September – 1st October), to find out how much people actually know about the subject.

According to BS 9999, the code of practice for fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings, fire doors should be inspected every six months; however when asked how often they thought fire doors should be checked, only 40% of respondents were correct.

Almost a third of people surveyed believe fire doors should be inspected once per year, and surprisingly the remaining 30% think they should only be checked as part of a Fire Risk Assessment.

Our survey also revealed that 24% of people are unaware that most regular fire doors give occupants just 30 minutes before they lose their integrity and smoke and gases could start to penetrate, with most respondents believing it is one hour.

Richard Sutton, General Manager at Horbury Property Services, said: “Fire doors play an extremely important role in ensuring compartmentation of a building, enabling occupants to escape or be safe in the event of a fire. Regular inspections, at least six monthly, are vital to ensure the life saving properties of a fire door are retained and smoke, toxic gases and fire are not able to enter the space within a given timeframe. The doors can only do this effectively if they are fully maintained.”

Other surprising results from our survey included:

• 36% of people do not know what the important properties are that make up a fire door, with the answer being hinges, glazing, signage, door-closer and ironmongery.
• 12% of people believe an occupier has responsibility to get a fire door inspected, when it is in fact the landlord or building owner.

Richard adds: “The results of our survey lead us to believe that it is likely that many fire door inspections are out of date. If so, it is important that the doors are checked as soon as possible by an experienced and competent fire door inspector. The trained and experienced team at Horbury Property Services uses the latest technology to deliver in-depth reporting on each fire door, giving the customer complete visibility of the effectiveness of each door and what remedial work may need to be carried out.”