Horbury Property Services, part of the Horbury Group, has revealed the results of a survey that showed how 60% of people are unaware of how often a fire door should be inspected, and almost a quarter do not know how long a standard fire door would give them to escape during a blaze.
The ‘startling statistics’ were released by Horbury Property Services, which ran the survey in preparation for this year’s Fire Door Safety Week (25 September-1 October). Horbury said: “According to BS 9999, the Code of practice for fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings, fire doors should be inspected six-monthly; however when asked how often they thought they should be checked, only 40% of respondents were correct. Almost a third believe fire doors should be inspected once per year, while the remaining 30% thought they should only be checked as part of a Fire Risk Assessment.”
The survey also revealed that 24% of people are unaware that most regular fire doors give occupants just 30 minutes before they lose their integrity, with most respondents believing it is one hour.
Richard Sutton, general manager, said: “The survey results lead us to believe it is likely that many fire door inspections are out of date. If so, it is important the doors are checked as soon as possible by an experienced and competent fire door inspector.”
