Dashpivot article – Fire Door Inspection regulations UK
Fire Door Inspection Regulations UK
Who sets UK Fire Door Inspection Regulations?
A fire door inspection in the UK is a legal obligation for compliance with the FSO. If the building owners do not conduct regular inspections and risk assessments, and practice maintenance of fire doors, building owners may face penalties, fines, or imprisonment.
Things like how often fire doors need to be inspected differ from region to region, and it's the FSO which governs these questions and rules in the UK.
Read on to learn more about what you need to know about fire door inspection regulations in the UK.
What is the Fire Safety Order (FSO) and How Does it Relate to Fire Door Inspections?
The Fire Safety Order (FSO) or sometimes known as The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is a legislation that indicates: (1) building owners must ensure the safety of occupants in the building; (2) fire risk assessments and inspections must be conducted regularly in order to determine whether corrective actions are necessary to mitigate risks, and; (3) precautions must be practiced such as maintaining fire doors, fire safety equipment, exit routes, fire alarms, and emergency lightings.
A fire door is a critical component that is used as a part of a passive fireproofing system that prevents the spread of fire and smoke in different parts of the building. It is usually a combination of different components like glass, gypsum, steel, timber and aluminum.
The FSO indicates that fire doors must be regularly inspected and maintained for fire safety. In summary, they must be checked whether: (1) the doors are installed correctly and fully engaged with the frame with proper opening and closing mechanism; (2) the smoke seals and intumescent strips are properly fitted; (3) there are no physical damages on the door and frame, and; (4) all mechanical systems or hardware function properly. Certified professionals or those with the knowledge and expertise must be the ones who conduct the installations and regular inspections. They and the building owners must keep records of all inspections and maintenance work that take place. It is recommended that fire doors must be inspected every 6 months or more for fire doors in high-use areas.
What is the purpose of Fire Door Inspection?
A fire door’s main purpose is to prevent the spread of smoke and fire, giving people in the building and occupants ample time to evacuate immediately and safety. Building owners need to regularly inspect fire doors to make sure that they continue to be functional with their purpose. Even a slight damage on a fire door may fail to serve its intended purpose. Damages may cause further damage to the building, and worse, injury or death of occupants. The main goal of having fire doors is to safeguard the lives of building occupants so it’s important to regularly check if they are in condition to protect the building and lives.
Regular inspections can help building owners and facility managers identify faults like damages, wear and tear, improper sealing, misalignments, damaged mechanisms, etc. early on. Building owners can make corrective actions without compromising occupant safety.
A fire door inspection in the UK is a legal obligation for compliance with the FSO. If the building owners do not conduct regular inspections and risk assessments, and practice maintenance of fire doors, building owners may face penalties, fines, or imprisonment.
What are the Key Fire Safety Order (FSO) Regulations Governing Fire Door Inspections in the UK?
The persons responsible, like the building owners, should implement general fire precautions at all times, and conduct regular inspections to the fire doors to make way for safer evacuation routes. They should be maintained at functional and efficient states.
Building owners should conduct fire risk assessments of any part of the building and identify potential hazards around the fire doors. Aside from these, the building owners must appoint competent and qualified individuals to check the performance of the fire doors and if they are regularly compliant with the fire safety standards.
Upon installation of the fire doors, they should work in conjunction with the fire safety systems like fire detection and alarm systems. The fire risk assessments, inspections, and maintenance records should be properly recorded and kept in case fire authorities require these documents for inspection if they comply with the FSO requirements.
Who can Perform UK based Fire Door Inspections to Comply with FSO Regulations?
The basic qualifications a competent person should have in order to conduct fire door inspections are: (1) They must know how the fire doors actually work, also knowing the mechanisms and specifications of different types and kinds of fire doors; (2) They must know which areas of the fire door to inspect like the gaps, seals, frames, hardware, and many more, and; (3) They should know which fire door performance standards are to be followed and how to determined the performance of fire doors based on manufacturer’s specifications.
Fire Door Inspectors are certified inspectors who have already completed a specific fire door inspection training. The certifying bodies could be the Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS) which issues diplomas and certificates for those who have trained in all areas of fire door safety and inspection, or the BRE Group that issues certificates after trainees complete the courses related to fire door installation and inspection. The professionals are qualified to perform detailed inspections, comment on corrective actions, and create fire door inspection reports.
Aside from certified inspections, fire risk assessors coming from organizations like the Institute of Fire Safety Managers (IFSM), Institute of Fire Engineers (IFE), or similar ones could be hired to conduct comprehensive fire risk assessments which also include fire doors. They cover all parts related to fire risks.
Maintenance staff of the building can also be qualified for fire door inspections for as long as they have undergone training to perform basic fire door checks. The installers who installed the fire doors may also be trained to conduct inspections since they already have knowledge with the fire door installation standards and use that training to perform newly-installed fire doors inspections. For more complex inspections though, it is advisable to hire a certified third-party.
Overall, it is key that the individuals tasked to perform fire door inspections should have the proper training in fire door regulations and standards, the relevant experience and knowledge for the different types of fire doors and ratings, and the ability to conduct regular inspections at least once or twice a year.
What is Needed for the Documentation and Reporting of Fire Door Inspections in the UK?
Inspection Log/Report
A detailed inspection log or report should be prepared after every fire door inspection in the UK. It must contain the date, inspector details, location of the fire doors, door identification, type of fire door, condition, issues detected, corrective action, and next inspection date. It’s important that the report must contain the necessary details for audit or compliance or inspection from a building control body. Inspectors must also include photos for responsible persons involved to visually see possible damages or issues detected. This is a summary report from the inspection document that is done individually on each fire door. It’s essential that all reports and records should be kept for safekeeping and documentation. They should be made available when fire safety authorities or building control bodies request the documents.
Photographic Evidence
Aside from written reports and documents, photographic evidence is necessary as support or backup. Especially when there are damages or issues on the fire door, it’s important to take pictures that include GPS and mark-ups to make it easier to detect the location of the firedoor with the possibly many items in the building.
UK Fire Door Maintenance Records
Aside from inspection reports and documents, maintenance records including repairs and replacement should be documented that includes the detailed work being done, repairers, and details of the parts being replaced. This may be attached along with the inspection report.
UK Fire Risk Assessment Documentation
If a third-party assessor is being hired to conduct a comprehensive inspection, a fire risk assessment documentation should be prepared. This doesn’t only cover fire doors but the entire fire safety system of the building.
Signed Compliance Statement
The inspector should sign a statement of compliance after each inspection of each fire door. This will serve as proof that the fire doors were inspected accurately and in-line with the regulations being followed. This is included along the inspection report.
Use this free digital fire door inspection form in the UK
How to Make it Easy for Your Team to Document Fire Door related tasks to meet Fire Door Inspection Regulations in the UK
Create your own digitised Fire Door Inspection document or use one in our public template library to standardise your inspection process and generate reports while staying compliant with the Fire Safety Order (FSO). Use the drag and drop builder feature to customise all of your documents and cater according to your needs.
Add sections for photos, comments, information, check boxes to complete your inspection logs and reports. Create a photographic evidence document as a separate or include it in the next pages of your customised inspection report. Add tags, mark-ups, and GPS. Create a maintenance record document and use that standardised document as a format and create documents in that format. Create your own risk assessment document as well and include all things needed for fire safety compliance.
Easily create reports for audit and compliance by making use of the dashboards and charts that you can create easily from your data forms. Make informed decisions and implement corrective actions if the data being collected do not meet the regulations.
You have mobile access and on-the-go tracking of all documents in your database. You will never lose your documents with digitised forms.
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