Fire Door Propped Open

To contain fire and smoke.

Fire door propped open. Firstly where a fire door has been wedged open against the instructions given by the the employer or resp person the person wedging the door and anyone who doesn t do anything about it ie walks through the door and does not remove the wedge may be contravening article 32 2 a of the fso which states it is an offence for any person to. Some companies have interior fire doors that typically remain open between departments during the normal business hours but they will automatically close in the event of an emergency. Don t pay the price of the door wedge. All exits lead from the hallways of the propped open fire doors.

If propped open occupants can be in danger using stairs to evacuate and lab research can be threatened by fire spread. This standard regulates the installation and maintenance of assemblies and devices used to protect openings in walls floors and ceilings against the spread of fire and smoke within into or out of buildings. Building residents and staff should be taught code compliant solutions and should not get into a habit of overriding fire safe practices. Occupants may be tempted to prop open fire doors to preclude the need to touch handles.

Despite this they re still regularly found propped open preventing them from working as they should. However fire doors have a very important purpose preventing the spread of fire so wedging one open is dangerous and illegal. This short post seeks to explain why they shouldn t be propped open whilst it also covers a range of other frequently asked questions on the subject. So any fire rated door assembly may not be wedged open.

All fire extinguishers either have no inspection tags or are expired 3 4 were not originally mentioned because they are self explanatory. Wedged or propped open fire doors are a common problem. The only safe way for fire doors to be held open is with special devices that release them to close automatic ally when the fire alarm is activated. Emergency lighting in 3 of the stairway is non operational.

While it can be convenient to put a wedge in to keep a fire door open creating. That applies to nearly all doors in a hospital. Anything that could prevent the door from closing and latching properly during an emergency condition such as propping the door open with objects taping the latch using wood wedges or kick down door stops. And to finally address fire rated door assemblies section 8 3 3 1 requires all doors required to have a fire protection rating to comply with nfpa 80 which requires self closing devices on the doors.

Fire doors form an integral part of the fire strategy for shared or multi storey accommodations. It is also against the law. If the door is not equipped with an automatic closing device do not prop it open. But there are some doors that you could.

A 1 1 see annex k for general information about fire doors. Propped open fire doors. When fire doors are wedged or propped open businesses are at risk of fines but more seriously it puts people s lives in danger.