The day after the Grenfell Tower tragedy I received a call from a seasoned public-sector fire-safety expert and they said: ‘There is more to this than the cladding you know… the fire doors!’ As it turns out, there was much more…
There have been some notable fires in recent decades and attention is always drawn to insufficient fire protection from products installed to resist and restrict the spread of fire and the effects of fire. I am thinking about Summerland, Bradford City FC, Lakanal House and Grenfell Tower.
Grenfell is the worst in terms of victims, 72 people died, two later in hospital with over 70 injured and 223 escaping. Not to mention the fallout in terms of mental-health issues resulting from this tragedy. It was the deadliest structural fire since the Piper Alpha oil platform disaster in 1988 and the worst residential fire in the UK since the Second World War.
The inquiry found that doors that were meant to self-close remained open, allowing fire and smoke to spread through the building. Flat entrance doors, installed as part of a door replacement programme beginning in 2011 had missing self-closers and it later turned out that they failed to meet the legal minimum standard of 30 minutes fire resistance. These were purpose-made fire-rated flat entrance doors, of composite construction, manufactured using 21st-century technology – not original doors from the 1970s.
The findings of fire-resistance performance tests initiated by the Metropolitan Police and undertaken by HM Government, the report by Dr Barbara Lane and the evidence of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry are well documented and tell a tale of poor practice and incompetence. So, we will avoid repeating the shocking details here and suffice to say that a regrettable combination of insufficient fire testing, lack of proper factory production control and a failure to install and maintain fire doors to an adequate standard in the built environment, meant that when they were needed the fire doors were, in some cases, as good as absent.
This focus of this article is on what has changed since the Grenfell Tragedy in the world of fire doors – for better and worse.
Regulatory change
In May 2018 the then Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published guidance for Responsible Persons to address concerns over the suitability of flat entrance doors at blocks of flats to resist fire and restrict smoke spread. It gave a reminder that widely used composite-construction flat entrance doors must be fire-tested from both sides, as oddly this had not always been the case in reality, and that routine fire-door checks and assessments should be carried out to ensure the adequacy of flat entrance doors.
From then onwards the fire-door sector noticed a clear uptick in enquiries about fire-door inspection services and quotations for replacement fire doors. This trend has continued, which is both good and not so good.
The guidance on fire doors was eventually withdrawn in 2022 and has since been replaced by various new legislation and guidance from HM Government including a new building safety regime for construction of new buildings including alterations and extensions, the requirement for a Golden Thread of building information that must be kept up to date in high-risk buildings, fire-door periodic checks for high-rise residential blocks and guidance about fire doors in small blocks of flats. Currently, HM Government are also looking at how safety and performance of fire-rated products can be assured without requiring the introduction of overbearing regulation and the construction industry, picking up from Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of building regulations and fire safety including her reports entitled ‘Raising the Bar’ and ‘Setting the Bar’, is working on competency requirements at all levels for those working in the construction industry. They have recognised that skills, knowledge and behaviours are all key to safe and compliant outcomes for construction and refurbishment of buildings. Also, undergoing review currently are two more important documents, ‘Fire Safety in Purpose Built Blocks of Flats’ originally authored by the Department of Communities & Local Government (known now as the DLUHC), and the fire-door bible – ‘BS 8214 Timber-based fire door assemblies – Code of practice’. So many changes, but how might they affect the real-world performance of fire doors in high density housing?
A message from the front line
So, here we are at the end of 2023 and what has changed since June 2017? Beginning with awareness of the role of fire doors, a lot has changed including a legal requirement since January 2023 that flat entrance doors and fire doors in communal areas in residential blocks above 11m in storey height are subject to safety checks every 12 months and three months respectively. Housing providers are also required to inform and remind occupants about the importance of fire doors including individual flat entrance doors and that doors must effectively and reliably self-close. So these doors must not be tampered with or changed for non-fire-rated doors.
So, at end-user level the importance of fire doors is now much better understood, certainly by those that want to understand, and this is witnessed by the number of social media posts about fire doors in high density housing. This is a good thing.
As regards the fire-door sector itself, it is a mixed picture. Fire-door inspections are now definitely a ‘thing’ as they say, and that is a good place to start in terms of a mixed picture.
Building management companies are mandating that leaseholders provide documentary confirmation that their flat entrance door will provide 30 minutes’ fire-resistance and will adequately restrict the spread of smoke, and in terms of communal areas, building management are engaging fire-door inspectors to inspect and report on the suitability of the fire doors. So, what can go wrong? Mainly, it is about vested interests and behaviours, and this is something I wrote about six years ago in my Fire Door Monthly blog: ‘In search of the Silver Bullet and beware of the Vested Interest’. The problem is that some fire-door inspectors are looking to offer additional services to supply and install new fire doors and therefore their inspection judgement can become clouded. Too often fire doors are deemed non-compliant by the inspector only because they bear no label or plug to trace the door to its fire-performance certification, and I suspect that insufficient effort has been made to find any traceability. This is too often made worse because the new replacement door is actually a poorer-quality fire door as compared to the existing one. Back in the day fire doors were manufactured using solid-timber-based materials for their core and with timber framing around the core materials, whereas recent developments have produced lighter doors using less-solid materials. These new lighter doors, of course, have their place but are often found in end uses where a heavier-duty door is required. I think it’s about price and profit.
So, we have fire-door inspectors advising clients that their fire doors need to be replaced, offering those additional services and then providing an inferior replacement. Fire rated and certificated but inferior.
This is akin to the dentist that extracts teeth in favour of dentures when they could be filled instead. Clients would be well advised to procure the services of a fire-door inspector that is truly independent, one that does not offer supply, installation and repair services.
What else has changed and not changed?
Besides the advent of the fire-door inspector, we now have the fire-door engineer. What’s in a name? Sorry to quote William Shakespeare!
There is now a realisation that fire doors should be installed by a competent person. This has not always been the case and has resulted in too many fire doors in the built environment that, although fire rated and certificated, would not hold back fire and restrict smoke spread. Poor installations and maintenance are miles ahead when it comes to reasons for a fire door being found as non-compliant.
Recently, I saw the term Fire Door Engineer used by a company offering training services and I see no reason why this job description shouldn’t be used, but I also no reason why it should be. The fact remains that there are plenty of competent carpenters and joiners that can install and maintain fire doors compliant to the relevant standard. This has been the case for many years; it’s just that they have been undervalued. You know, there is always somebody cheaper.
You can change the name if you like, but unless you value the service then nothing else will change – just the name!
The important change, though, is that specific training for fire-door installers, maintainers and inspectors is available and even more importantly is being taken up by individuals, small companies, large building companies and their sub-contractors. This, so long as the training is of sufficient quality, has to be a change for the good. It’s interesting that when I talk to fire-door installers and maintainers, I find they nearly always want to do the job correctly but that often their managers fail to appreciate that doing the job correctly takes longer than they might think.
The answer is to educate all stakeholders so the fact that there has been wide take-up of fire-door-related training means that in the longer term those that hold the purse strings might appreciate the value of competence. Competence it must be understood is not just about training, that’s only part of the solution; behaviours, experience and the development of skills and knowledge are all essential in becoming competent in a task.
We are on a journey
When we talk about fire safety, we often hear the word holistic. We must treat the matter of fire-door safety in the whole. Every part of the process from procurement and specification, including value-engineering and risk assessment, through competent on-site activities to effective management and maintenance in the built environment will all be necessary if we are to achieve the desired outcomes.
Suitable fire-risk assessment, as referenced in HM Government guidance for fire-door safety, is an essential element in making sure fire doors in existing buildings are adequate to provide the necessary fire and smoke protection. Clearly, the priority will always be the safety of the persons in or around the building but other considerations are the integrity of the building and the safety of the fire and rescue services when they need to enter a building fire.
One thing that hasn’t changed is that fire-safety law in the UK is based on risk assessment. The Responsible Person via their fire-risk assessor may consult an independent fire-door specialist for advice but the fact remains that it’s not possible to duck responsibility by simply ordering replacement fire doors.
Fire doors have an essential role in fire compartmentation in a block of flats to support a stay-put policy or to aid safe evacuation and should be inspected for adequacy and checked regularly for defects so that they can be maintained as suitable to meet the requirements of the relevant Fire Safety Order for the particular regional location.
For more information, go to www.firedoorscomplete.com
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