Secured by Design support Fire Door Safety Week 2023

The British Woodworking Federation’s Fire Door Safety Week aims to raise the awareness of the critical role that fire doors play in saving lives and protecting property in the unfortunate event of a fire. 

This year’s Fire Door Safety Week runs from Monday 25th September until Friday 29th September. It is supported by a number of partners, including the Home Office’s National Fire Safety campaign, the National Fire Chief’s Council and London Fire Brigade.

Research conducted in 2022 by the British Woodworking Federation as part of their Fire Door Safety Week campaign ‘Close the Door on Fire’ found that a third of the British public would not report a problem with a fire door. Despite three quarters correctly believing that propping a fire door open stops it performing its role in the event of a fire, almost half wouldn’t take action over a propped open fire door as they wouldn’t know who to report it to. This British Woodworking Federation handy video explains what you should be looking out for when it comes to a fire door – would you know if it will perform properly and save your possessions or your life in the event of a fire?

Secured by Design (SBD), the national police crime prevention initiative, has been a staunch campaigner for improved security in buildings for over 30 years. As a consequence of the tragic events of the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017, SBD announced that as part of its membership it was requiring doors that are either described as fire doors, or where fire performance is declared or implied, to have third-party certification for both security and fire performance.

SBD have subsequently revisited the possible life-threatening characteristics of fire rated doorsets, as asphyxiation caused by smoke inhalation is the most common cause of deaths in flats when a fire occurs. Therefore SBD require all member companies with doorsets listed on their SBD schedule that are fire rated and that are required by UK Building Regulations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) to have smoke control properties for the intended installation - e.g. flat entrance doorsets to be certificated for the following attributes – Security, Fire and Smoke Control, on a single UKAS 3^rd party scope of certification.

SBD are adamant that any doorset that carries SBD accreditation should be fit for purpose in all declared characteristics, but especially those that are life critical such as fire, security and smoke control.

For further information on Fire Door Safety Week, please visit:  https://www.firedoorsafetyweek.co.uk/