Understanding The Importance of Fire Doors
Fire doors are of the highest importance. Able to protect occupants from the spread of flames or smoke, provide guided fire escapes or routes to safety, or even isolate the fire itself, fire doors provide valuable time to evacuate in the event of an emergency. Fire doors can even prevent a fire from starting altogether, ensuring potential hazards or ignition points cannot come into contact with sources of fuel.
What Is A Fire Door?
An essential component of any commercial building or property, fire doors provide protection, security and resistance to the potential threat of smoke or flames from causing unthinkable damage to your building. In the event of an emergency, fire doors provide clear pathways and safe escape routes out of the building, saving lives in the process. They are vital in the protection of your building or inhabitants and a legal requirement in all commercial properties.
What Do They Do?
A fire door is designed to prevent fire or smoke from spreading throughout your building, keeping the fire contained inside a specific space or room, known as a ‘compartment’. This offers inhabitants much greater time to escape, and the fire service longer to reach the source of the fire, or to rescue those that have been become trapped. Able to slow down the rapid spread of most fires, fire doors protect your business, possessions and most importantly, your life.
In short, fire doors will:
● Contain the fire in the room in which it started.
● Keep escape routes clear from fire, giving inhabitants longer to escape and quicker access for the fire service.
● Protect the remainder of the building, its contents and other buildings nearby from further damage.
Fire doors are specially designed to resist and prevent the spread of flames or smoke for a specific time frame. Depending on their fire door rating, they will be designed to withstand fire for either thirty or sixty minutes. Fitted with intumescent strips, the heat from the flames or smoke will cause them to expand, filling the gaps between the door and the frame. This creates a seal, preventing the spread for the given timeframe. Remember, when your fire doors are not in use, they must be closed at all times to function correctly, so you should ensure your doors are fitted with automatic closers.
Why It Matters
As mentioned, fire doors are a pivotal layer of protection, to ensure the safety of your building and occupants, ensuring the fire or smoke is contained within the compartment it started. This prevents the fire from spreading further, across your building and potentially onto others, causing serious damage to lives and livelihoods. As a legal requirement for all non-domestic or commercial properties, such as public buildings, they are also required in shared housing, flats or multiple occupancy accommodation.
At Thoroughbred Industrial Doors Ltd, our fire doors are available in a range of materials from timber to aluminium and steel. We’ll produce custom-made fire-resistant doors so that the tight fit maximises your fire resistance. For more information, contact us today.
