Why we support Fire Door Safety Week
What are your responsibilities as a social landlord? How do you spot a dodgy fire door? What documentation should you ask to see that proves a fire door has been properly tested? Why should you NEVER prop open a fire door?
Fire Door Safety Week
All these questions and many more are the focus of what for JB Kind is one of the most important weeks of the year: Fire Door Safety Week. Launched from a partnership of the British Woodworking Federation, the BWF Fire Door Alliance and the Fire Door Inspection Scheme in 2013, this year’s campaign takes place from September 20-26.
What are the campaign’s aims?
Launched in response to a “legacy of fire door neglect”, Fire Door Safety Week aims to arm as many people as possible – from residents to landlords to councils – with all the information they need to ensure that fire doors continue to perform their vital role in resisting flames and therefore saving lives. In the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy of 2017, the campaign continues to be of the utmost importance.
Vital information
Check out the Fire Door Safety Week website where a wealth of information is carefully listed under handy sections such as: ‘private rented housing’; ‘care homes and sheltered housing’ and ‘public buildings’. Click through for all you could want to know about how to identify and maintain fire doors in these specific settings. Whether you’re a resident or someone with responsibility over a building in question, it’s definitely worth giving these pages a very thorough read.
Get the reassurance you need when you buy certified fire doors
When you are installing a fire door, you need guaranteed proof that it will perform in the even of a fire. But how do you know it will? One way to be sure that what you are buying is the real deal is to ensure it is fully certified. JB Kind is a supplier of CERTIFIRE FD30 fire doors: what this means is that these doors benefit from third-party certification. This provides you with reassurance that a fire door’s manufacturer or processor is audited by a separate organisation to ensure it is fully tested.
At JB Kind we are proud to give our backing both to Fire Door Safety Week and also to the Fire Door Alliance’s Be Certain, Be Certified campaign, which tells you all you need to know about the certification process.
Your fire door safety vital checklist
Lastly, here is a handy tick list of the main five things to consider when installing and maintaining fire doors.
- Certification: Is it an accredited fire door? Have you got the paperwork?
- Gaps: Are the gaps around the top and sides of the door less than 4mm, and less than 8mm underneath the door?
- Seals: Are there any intumescent seals around the door or frame, and are they intact with no sign of damage?
- Hinges: Are the hinges firmly fixed (three or more of them), with no missing or broken screws?
- Closing: Does the door close properly?
Fire Door Safety Week. It could just be life-saving.