Can we leave fire exit door open?

[AnthonyB]

Fire exit doors of any nature generally don't start to require outward opening until 60 or more people need to use them.

[Guest Marky R]

I work at a food manufacturing company consisting of industrial cooking baking equipment.

Along one external wall we have several porches with a fire exit doors on the outside, and a screened ventilated metal door on the inside.

My question is during hot weather conditions, can we leave the external door open?

[Tom Sutton]

Assuming FD30 self closing doors are not required, you can, it is a security problem not a fire safety one.

[Guest Michael]

Commercial government office building owned and operated by the GSA, fire screen door accessing stairs that go vertical from the 5th floor to the 1st floor. Can the door be propped open by any means if there is a properly trained person in close proximity standing watch while working that would close it in the event of a fire? Is there a provision for this? When the door has mechanical issues the maintenance guy has to prop it open between trips to get supplies or tools, granted for short periods. Like when the handle fell off and access to the stairs would have been impossible.

Thank you in advance

[Tom Sutton]

I am not sure what you mean by fire screen door, I assume it is a FD30/60 fire door to the staircase enclosure.

There is no provision for this situation, in fire safety there are no black and white answers, like most things in fire safety it is all about risk assessment and if it is essential that a fire door has to be propped open, you have to make the situation as fire safe as possible. If you are happy to defend your solution with common sense and the occupants will/should be safe in a fire situation then go with it.

Without having a full and intimate knowledge of the situation I cannot give a definitive answer also it is up to you to defend it if things go pear shaped.

[Guest Alansfiresafety]

Great advice here. I have a similar question to the last poster. We have some special needs people who do some training in a workshop. Their is an internal FD30 door that leads out to a lobby and then towards the final exit door. During the summer, the workshop gets very warm and staff have propped the fire door open to allow some ventilation. We asked the local fire trainer’s advice and he was of the opinion that it would be acceptable to prop the door open provided that at all times there was a responsible adult with the service users to close the door in the event of us having to evacuate the area. He did say that strictly speaking, the door should be closed at all times but that if the “responsible adult “ is willing to stand over the propping of the door, it is probably acceptable. Needles to say, this has left us more confused. Any comment ??

[Harry]

Hi, that sounds a rather risky advice, how would you ensure that that person is there ALL the time? Why not simply use a fire door retainer that holds a fire door open when required but allows the fire door closer to close the door when there is a fire. These are in very widespread use.

Harry

[AnthonyB]

The fire trainer doesn't sound like a competent fire risk assessor and their advice is severely flawed (otherwise everywhere would just do this).

A proper fire door retainer is advisable, depending on the situation a simple indirect self contained device such as a Dorgard or Shuttle may suffice or a more direct device may be required - your competent risk assessor should consult BS7273-4 in determining which will suit.

[Guest Alansfiresafety]

Thank you for that advice. 

[Guest David]

Can you tell me if an emergency exit door to the outside when opened should it have a device that holds it open and not return to closed by the wind or an other uncontrolled means.   

[Tom Sutton]

Some final exit doors do have this facility but it is not compulsory.

[Guest SO'W]

Hi everyone, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and wisdom. Was wondering if I could just pose my current issue. I work in a warehouse and we have a door the drivers use to enter when they've parked up. The wind is vicious and often slams the door if just left open so I've put a tie outside to keep it hooked open. I've been told by certain people this is not allowed. It is marked as a fire exit and kept clear of obstacles but, is this a fire risk to keep it open? 

[Tom Sutton]

Only if it is required to be a fire door which is not common, the door in the image appears not to be a FD30 door which is the norm and it is quite acceptable to hold it open, the only concern would be security.

[Guest T longworth]

Hello

we are refurbishing a gastro pub and have 2 sets of final escape to fresh air doors. The doors are beautiful Georgian ( not listed) doors. Security wise we could have them unlocked during times that the public are resident. Would it be possible to not install panic bars but lever handles ? 

[Tom Sutton]

If the doors are locked in the open position the type of door handle is irrelevant but I cannot see the doors wide open in the depths of winter so I would suggest you keep the panic bars as it is a place of assembly.

[Guest Jaq]

Can I stop my neighbour from using a fire exit as an entrance ee jointly own because she is turning her house into flats 

[Tom Sutton]

I would need more details on the layout.

[Guest amars]

Could anyone help this is a two part question? At work we have a final fire exit door which leads to stairs going down two levels, my question is could this door be used as an entrance or exit from work legally? And could management change the rule on this?

[AnthonyB]

There's nothing stopping a fire exit being in normal access route from a fire safety point of view, usually it's a security issue where access is limited to just one normal door.

[Guest Shree Gill]

I live in a block of Flats.  The internal doors say Fire Door.  However there is no fresh air coming in and the commuanl area has a foul smell of people cooking.  People with Prams and elderly and those coming back with heavy shopping are having problems opening these heavy fire doors.

Is it okay to wedge open the fire doors during the day time only.  This way everyone can freely come and go.

In the evening the fire doors are kept closed.

Please advise

[Safelincs]

Hi Shree

Wedging fire doors is a huge No-No at any time, as you never know when a fire could break out! Fire doors help to compartmentalise and hold back fires and allow the safe evacuation of people but will only work if they are closed when the fire starts.  However, there are simply ways to hold fire doors open in a legal way. Fire door retainers hold fire doors open during normal operation and allow the door to close in case the fire alarm goes off.

If you want the fire doors to behave like normal doors (without the closing pressure from the overhead door closer) you need a free-swing fire door closer.  These closers are fitted instead of the traditional overhead fire door closers. Again, when the fire alarm goes off, these free-swing devices will close the door.

Harry

[Guest Neil T]

Mr Tom Sutton I live in a block of flats on the second floor which does have a FIRE DOOR KEEP SHUT notice on it..

This door is persistently left open by a tenant and I have contacted the housing officer relating to this matter and got no reply.

The residents don't have a fob when leaving and have broken the door close mechanism with vandalism and Im sick sore and tired having to shut it on a daily basis sometimes 3 to 4 times a day.

 There is also a threat from leaving rubbish outside my door which opposite has another fire door with the relevant sign on it but they are always leaving their rubbish blocking it..

It seems to me the housing officer doesn't give a hoot about anything and gets paid for doing nothing about these issues..

I have a door onto my balcony and the lock is broken and the contractors came around and secured it with 2 screws top and bottom of the door...This was on 2nd September 2019 and when I rang again they told me they fixed the door on 2nd October which was a false comment....

How can I resolve this situation which in  a Health & Safety issue?

[Tom Sutton]

I cannot advise on Health & Safety issues but regarding the fire safety matter if you cannot get a satisfactory response from the managing agents you can contact the local fire and rescue service, check out https://www.firesafe.org.uk/uk-fire-rescue-services-details/.

[Guest jellytots35]

Hi 

We have some internal doors to offices are they ok to be propped open?

In these circumstances we also have some fire escape doors in the corridors, whist we are a busy occupied office could we prop them during the coronavirus outbreak to prevent people from having to touch handles.  There is a procedure in place to close them end of day.

Bearing in mind we are an office and we do not have any obvious ignition sources, all electrical equipment PAT tested and termo tests done on our electrical boxes.

[Tom Sutton]

Need more information like the layout and compartmentation.