Morning all!
Im looking for advice on fire door seals.
The company I work for have floors in an office building occupied by many other businesses. On our floors ive noticed that almost all of the fire door seals are frayed in part or completely. Add to this a few doors are always wedged open with floor door wedges.
To me this poses a risk, but legally does it pose a fire risk or not? Im not a fire officer btw but someone that has an interest in general H&S mainly because nobody else in the office actually seems to be.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Office Building Fire Door Seals
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witsd
- Grand Shidoshi
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Re: Office Building Fire Door Seals
Lets roll out the old answer:
"It depends upon the findings of the fire risk assessment."
The law says 'get a competent person to complete an FRA, and that will tell you what you have to do'. Until that point, unless the FRS turn up and issue an enforcement notice, you haven't broken any laws.
Having said that, if it could be shown that the company had been made aware of the issue (say, a member of staff such as yourself saw the fault and had previously had training that stated they should inform management of any H&S issues) and then there was a fire that caused serious damage / loss of life, I'm sure there would be consequences.
"It depends upon the findings of the fire risk assessment."
The law says 'get a competent person to complete an FRA, and that will tell you what you have to do'. Until that point, unless the FRS turn up and issue an enforcement notice, you haven't broken any laws.
Having said that, if it could be shown that the company had been made aware of the issue (say, a member of staff such as yourself saw the fault and had previously had training that stated they should inform management of any H&S issues) and then there was a fire that caused serious damage / loss of life, I'm sure there would be consequences.
We often think that when we have completed our study of one we know all about two, because 'two' is 'one and one.' We forget that we still have to make a study of 'and.'
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witsd
- Grand Shidoshi
- Posts: 1087
- Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2014 4:37 pm
- 9
- Occupation: Fire safety officer
- Location: Glasgow
- Has thanked: 91 times
- Been thanked: 266 times
Re: Office Building Fire Door Seals
Oh, and as for the FRA, it's perfectly possible that fire doors are not actually required by guidance. It would depend on square footage, use of the areas, protected means of escape, staff numbers, staff activities....
No sleeping occupants often means that a few door closers would be adequate to reduce the risk to life to a negligible level.
In domestic buildings an FRA should be considerably more demanding.
No sleeping occupants often means that a few door closers would be adequate to reduce the risk to life to a negligible level.
In domestic buildings an FRA should be considerably more demanding.
We often think that when we have completed our study of one we know all about two, because 'two' is 'one and one.' We forget that we still have to make a study of 'and.'
Re: Office Building Fire Door Seals
Thanks ever so much for your response, will take it onboard when discussing with my manager.
