Recent seminars conducted by the BWF-CERTIFIRE Scheme with Facilities Management companies and maintenance and safety professionals in national organisations, have highlighted worrying issues concerning fire door installations in both the public and private sector buildings.
‘FM companies and safety maintenance teams attending the seminars have described issues related to fire door installations in buildings which could result in terrible consequences if a fire breaks out’ says John Fletcher, who manages the Scheme. ‘What’s so worrying is that in many cases, the door issues are found in buildings that are only two or three years old.’ ‘It’s clear that contractors involved in these buildings have either deliberately cut corners when fitting fire door installations, or have little or no understanding of how fire doors work nor what correct components should be fitted to them.’
Issues of concern include doors with no evidence of certification or a fire door rating, doors fitted with no intumescent strips, door frame legs which are coming away from the walls or heads which are not attached to ceilings, glazing apertures and air transfer grilles cut on site, air transfer grilles and apertures with no intumescent seals, incorrect ironmongery that is clearly not fit for purpose, incorrect fire door closers.
‘The list seems endless’, reports John ‘but the buildings we’re referring to include hospitals, care homes, student accommodation’.
‘The evidence we’re getting from our seminars and other reports from our members, suggest that the doors have been passed without any checks on certification or how good the workmanship has been – FM maintenance crews now have to pick up the pieces’.
If you have any concerns over your fire door installations or would like more information about our seminar programme, you can contact John at firedoors@bwf.org.uk for further information.