Training taster - Understanding Fire Doors

Fire doors are an essential part of a building’s fire protection, purpose-built to resist fires for a prolonged period as defined in their rating. Being able to provide compartmentation through the use of fire doors delays fire spread between defined areas. This demonstrates the importance of fire doors in a building’s passive fire strategy.

Fire-resistance ratings are given to certified fire doors. This rating shows that the door set and its materials will hold back smoke and withstand heat: most commonly 30 or 60 minutes, depending on their rating. Intumescent strips (or seals) are fitted and these expand to fill the gap between the door and the frame.

Fire doors have two important purposes:

• When closed, they form a barrier to stop the spread of fire.
• When opened, they provide a means of escape.

Fire door information

Fire doors should be FD30(S), FD60(S), or FD120(S) specification with a fitted self-closing device. It is important to remember the door frames should also be of the same fire resistance as the door itself.

A ‘Fire-Rated Door Set’ relates to a fire door and frame, and to understand each element, an example is provided below:

FD60(S) with a positive self-closing device (SC)

• FD = Fire Door
• 60 = 60-minute fire resistance. You may also see 30 or 120.
• S = seals: referring to the cold smoke ability
• SC = self-closing device. Unless kept locked, the door will fully close to the frame unaided.

Unless kept locked, all doors should self-close. They should close flush to the frame and have no gaps in excess of 3mm or drop seal.

As part of the Fire Protection Association's continuing commitment to increase fire safety awareness across the built environment, a number of informative feature articles are available to read on our website.?You can read the full article here.