To help support this year’s Fire Door Safety Week, ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions UK & Ireland has launched a new best practice guide on how to specify, install, maintain and inspect fire-certified doorsets in residential and commercial buildings.
Available to download at www.assaabloyopeningsolutions.co.uk/en/whitepapers, the ‘Fire Doorsets’ guide has been compiled based on the knowledge and expertise of ASSA ABLOY’s FDIS-trained inspectors, as well as insights and information from a range of third-party accreditation bodies and trade associations, including the Door & Hardware Federation, Fire Industry Association, and Secured By Design.
The guide is intended to help all those responsible for fire safety in residential and commercial environments, such as architects and specifiers, installers, landlords, local authorities, building owners, and facilities managers — particularly at a time when fire safety is in the spotlight, due to the national Fire Door Safety Week campaign.
Running from 20th – 26th September, Fire Door Safety Week 2021 hopes to raise awareness of the critical role that fire doors play in saving lives and protecting property. Established by the British Woodworking Federation (BWF) and supported by the BWF Fire Door Alliance, the awareness campaign illustrates why it’s crucial to understand the factors that ensure a fire door performs as intended, with product manufacture, quality, installation and maintenance all playing a part.
Eryl Jones, Managing Director of the ASSA ABLOY Door Hardware Group, said: “The correct specification, maintenance and management of fire doors can be the difference between life and death for people, not to mention the damage fires can cause to property and valuables.
“In our new ‘Fire Doorsets’ guide, we tackle all considerations throughout a fire doorset’s lifecycle. From standards, certification and security, to their design, specification and installation, right through to their ongoing usage, maintenance and inspection, our intention is to help empower those responsible for fire safety with everything that they need to know.
“Some of the stats surrounding fire safety in the UK are staggering. There are 20,000 commercial fires in the UK every year[1]. Research suggests that the economy has lost £1bn in GDP and 5,000 jobs from preventable fires in commercial properties[2]. One study found that larger fires in schools cost on average £2.8m to repair, and in some cases as much as £20m[3]. And last year, a Freedom of Information request responded to by 147 UK local authorities, found 63% of planned fire door maintenance and replacement did not progress as scheduled[4]. It’s clear that there’s still plenty of work to be done around improving awareness of the critical role fire doorsets play in protecting life and property.
“We hope our new guide acts as an invaluable resource for those tasked with fire safety in buildings, ensuring everyone throughout the doorset’s lifecycle plays their part in upholding the highest fire safety standards.”
[1] IFSEC Global, ‘Fire extinguishers: your legal obligations’, https://www.ifsecglobal.com/fire-news/fire-extinguishers-legal-obligations/#:~:text=Fire%20extinguishers%3A%20your%20legal%20obligations%20There%20are%20nearly%2020%2C000%20commercial,premises%20or%20run%20a%20business
[2] Business Sprinkler Alliance, ‘£1 billion cost of warehouse fires to UK Plc’, https://www.business-sprinkler-alliance.org/news/1-billion-cost-of-warehouse-fires-to-uk-plc/
[3] Zurich Municipal, ‘Schools twice as likely as other buildings to be hit by a blaze’, https://www.zurich.co.uk/news-and-insight/schools-twice-as-likely-as-other-buildings-to-be-hit-by-a-blaze
[4] Fire Door Safety Week, ‘Fire door delays in local authority properties’, https://www.firedoorsafetyweek.co.uk/app/uploads/2020/09/FDSW_INFOGRAPHIC_2020.pdf
