Fire Doors

[SidKnee]

Can anyone tell me what are the pros and cons of fire doors, I am to replace all my doors to suit a wheelchair user and I am being reccomended to replace them with Fire Doors throughout?!.

Sid

[John Rumm]

Pros: More solid, better sound insulation, impede spread of fire. Cons: More expensive than an otherwise similar non fire door, 'kin heavy!

(If you actually want then to perform as fire doors then you also need to either add an intumescent strip to the sides (they normally have one on the top as standard), or increase the thickness of the door stops to

25mm)

[SidKnee]

"John Rumm" wrote> Pros: More solid, better sound insulation, impede spread of fire.

But do they let you get out in the event of a fire?

Sidney

[Dave]

Mmmmm. Local primary school props open its two newest fire doors (comp with 'fire door, keep closed' sign on it) so as to allow openness. Previously it was to let out the heat that got trapped inside the first one.

The head wanted me to prop open the doors when I opened up the school. I pointed to the signs and related all the fire training I undertook while in the textile industry all those years ago and the extra training I had in the aerospace industry just a few years ago and told her that I was not prepared to wedge them open without a written request from her. I have heard nothing since :-)

Dave

[Andrew Gabriel]

...and have a spring closer, since an open fire door is remarkably useless. Would also be quite an issue for a wheelchair user I suspect.

[chris French]

In message , SidKnee writes

What do you mean by 'let you get out'? If you mean can you open them in a fire, yes.

All a fire door does is hold back fire and smoke better and for longer than a normal door. I imagine they are being recommended in this situation because the wheelchair user presumably will not be able to get out so easily (or possibly at all) in the event of fire so the fire doors would give them extra protection whilst awaiting assistance.

down side is that the weight makes them harder to open for someone in wheelchair and to be effective they should stay shut, or have a device that holds them open, letting them shut in event of a fire

[John Rumm]

To be fair, the fire doors I bought recently are much heavier than a comparable egg box door, but probably not much more than a real wood door.

[Rick]

I have fire doors, and we ended up taking some of the springs off, and providing wedges for others, the springs are a real PITA. However we do make sure all doors are shut at night.

When we fitted the doors, cause we put a 3rd floor on, we also had to fireboard the walls, to make them as fire resiatant as the new doors.

The other downside is that they are ugly, there are few designs.

I would look carefully at escape routes, and likley causes of fire, and insulate one from the other, for example put a fire door to the kitchen, so a fire from there does not spread to the hall blocking the escape route from a bedroom.

Rick

[Mary Fisher]

That's if the fire is at the other side of the door. If it's on the side where the chair user is it could be difficult.

It's not an easy problem ...

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

I didn't realise that fires only happened at night ...

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Well done!

Mary

[Peter Parry]

I presume you are talking about a normal domestic house/flat? The purpose of fire doors is to slow down the rate of spread of smoke and, to a lesser extent, fire (despite their name). In large buildings they are used to partition off escape routes - so that a fire in one end of a building does not prevent escape at the other end and also to contain areas of risk - such as kitchens.

In a house they are required if there 3 or more stories. Unfortunately the wrong sort are often fitted and Darwin Award nominees often remove them or wedge them open.

In a smallish space they have limited usefulness, are heavier than conventional doors and are self closing. Unless fitted with magnetic hold opens this latter feature makes them a real pain for wheelchair users and also leads to the doors quickly being damaged. Unless you have an odd layout I'd be wary of fitting them.

However there are two exceptions. One may be the kitchen door (depending upon the design of house). If this is fitted I'd think carefully about fitting an electromagnetic hold-open coupled to a release switch on the wall and a heat sensor above the cooker. If you don't people will wedge it open which makes it useless.

The second exception is if the wheelchair user sleeps/works upstairs or in an annex with no easy access to the outside. In this case it is worth considering making their room a protected area with a fire door and, if upstairs, a protected floor. In the event of a fire this gives them the opportunity to stay where they are in safety until the fire service arrive. You will need to speak to the local fire service about their response times (and lodge details of the safe room with them - in the event of a fire they will know about it before they arrive and will go for that first). Except for remote areas fire response times are generally less than 15 mins and staying in a protected room is usually much safer than trying to evacuate someone in a wheelchair through smoke and flames.

[stejonda]

In message , Mary Fisher writes

can't see flames in day time so they can't hurt

[Mary Fisher]

Ah! Of course. Wossisname used a pillar ofsmoke and that doesn't burn.

Mary

[RzB]

I think your local fire station will have a Fire Prevention Officer who I believe will gladly visit you and advise, free of charge.

Well he did for me some years ago...

Roy

[John Rumm]

But an ordinary door would cause the same problem would it not? (the fact that it would let the fire *out* sooner would not really be the issue here)

[Rick]

But in the day we are awake to see them ......

Rick

[Chris Hodges]

See there's your problem. Everyone knows that if you're going to prop open fire doors you have to use the proper tool for the job - the nearest extinguisher.

[Mary Fisher]

yes ...

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Unless they're on the other side of a firedoor ...

Mary