Door Industry Journal - Spring 2018

Fire & Security

Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk

In the Line of Fire Brian Sofley, Managing Director at ASSA ABLOY Security Doors, a UK division of ASSA ABLOY, the global leader in door opening solutions, explains why inspection of fire doors by qualified engineers within buildings ought to be a legal requirement and policed by government. Current regulations often result in commercial and social housing developments requiring fire doors. Yet, at a national level we have no specifically prescribed rules for the mandatory inspection and maintenance of them. Many fire doors, particularly timber doors, are supplied into the market and supported by Global Assessments. This requires the manufacturers of such products to construct the door in accordance with the instructions provided by the door core supplier, who originally tested the assembly. Unfortunately, this is an unregulated practice with compliancy left often to trust, meaning it is often impossible to determine full compliance through visual inspection. In support of a more regulated process, some fire door manufacturers have adopted more stringent controls through an auditable third-party accreditation scheme, such as CERTIFIRE or Q-Mark, which provides additional reassurance that ongoing production of life safety products such as fire doors conform to the original specification and performance criteria. In all property fire inspections, there is a responsibility from the building owner to include checks on the fire doors. However, there is no legal requirement for them to validate that any recommended upgrades or repairs have been completed and done so with suitably qualified and competent engineers. There is additionally no requirement for them to seek verification that they have been completed to the satisfaction of the inspector until the next inspection is due. We at ASSA ABLOY Security Doors believe that to ensure a fire door is performing as it should be, such doors placed on the

market should carry verifiable evidence of compliancy, be installed by competent engineers carrying third party accreditation, such as FIRAS, and inspected twice a year by qualified inspectors. All subsequent repairs and maintenance must be carried out by qualified fire door engineers and reported back to the satisfaction of the inspector. To ensure a high level of compliancy and to greatly reduce the risk to occupiers this ought to be mandatory and policed by government. To download a copy of Brian’s fire door safety whitepaper, ‘A Time To Act’, please visit http://marketing.assaabloy.co.uk/fire-door-white-paper .

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THE door industry journal spring 2018