Clamp Down On Fire Safety Increases The Need For Certified Fire Doors

Peter Johnson, Chairman of the BWF-CERTIFIRE Fire Door and Doorset Scheme, and Lead Member for Doors

Most of you will probably have noticed the high number of prosecutions related to breaches in fire safety regulations reported on our BWF-CERTIFIRE website lately. Over recent months, fire authorities have really been clamping down on those landlords and building owners who, for some reason, don’t take the risk of fire seriously.

In many cases, the prosecutions have resulted in very high fines and even prison sentences for the owners and landlords of a variety of properties which range from small flats, restaurants, care homes, university accommodation to retail premises and offices.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order):2005 – or the RRO as it is often called, came into force in 2006 and replaced most fire safety legislation with one new order. It means that any person who has some level of control in premises, must take steps to reduce the risk from fire, consider how to contain a fire should one break out, and then also make sure people can safely escape if there is a fire. Fire doors and their components, of course, play a major part in containing a fire and protecting lives and property.

The conversations we now repeatedly have with building owners, facility managers, local authorities, and even hospitals on the issue of fire doors often goes like this: – “How do I know my fire doors are safe? How can I tell that the doors I have installed are fire doors, I have no certificates? What can I do? Can you certificate them for me?”

Our answer is quite simple. “The only way you can show that the door will work in the event of a fire is to ensure that it’s a third-party certificated door and is fitted correctly, using the correct, compatible components”. More often than not, it means that the ‘old door’ is to be replaced by a new one.

Good for business? Yes, but it shows how many people have got it wrong in the past, and how many continue to get it wrong either by ignorance, or sadly, by cutting corners and not fitting the correct doors in the first place.

We’ve been attempting to educate the market for many years over the issue of correctly installed third-party accredited fire doors and doorsets. Our BWF-CERTIFIRE Scheme was set up specifically with that in mind. Now that the impact of the RRO is starting to bite harder, we’re beginning to see a change in the mindset of many specifiers and building owners. Sadly, it has taken recent deaths caused by fire, and the threat of severe fines and prison sentences to make them to respond.

At the recent Scheme meeting, we reported that we’ve seen an increase in fire door label sales, even in a time of recession in the construction industry, and are about to launch a solution to the issue of education and the inspection of fire door installations by competent persons through the Fire Door Inspection Scheme.

Let’s hope we’ll see a reduction in the prosecutions because contractors, developers and building owners now want to get fire door safety right, by choosing a BWF-CERTIFIRE product.