Poll reveals worrying lack of fire door knowledge across trades
Published: 20 September 2019 - Fiona Garcia
Despite reporting a growth in demand for fire safety products and devices in the last year, a new poll by online ironmongery supplier, Ironmongery Direct, has revealed that over half of tradespeople do not know how to check that a fire door is operating correctly and complies with regulations.
The poll also found that 84% of respondents don’t believe there is enough fire door safety information readily available to tradespeople, despite extensive media coverage about the dangers of inadequate fire protection following the Grenfell disaster in 2017.
The results are published in support of the seventh annual Fire Door Safety Week, which takes place September 23-29 and aims to highlight the importance of fire doors and increase good fire safety practice across the trade industries.
The online poll follows a national survey of 2,000 adults carried out by Ironmongery Direct. The results show a disturbing lack of general awareness on the life-saving role that fire doors play, with 59% of the general public admitting they do not know how to identify a fire door.
Fire Industry Association CEO Ian Moore said: “Fire door-sets are a critical fire safety measure, designed, tested, manufactured and third party certified to exacting standards. For that reason, they need to be maintained in line with the door-set manufacturer’s instructions with the correct replacement parts.”
The research emphasises the need for tradespeople and the wider public to be more aware of the essential role that fire doors play in keeping them safe. Fire doors are designed to withstand fire for between 30 and 240 minutes and, when maintained correctly, they can make a remarkable difference in saving lives and reducing spread during a fire.
Ironmongery Direct managing director Wayne Lysaght-Mason commented: “We are pleased to see an increase in the sale of fire safety products across the industry. However, it is worrying that a large proportion of tradespeople still seem to lack basic fire door safety knowledge.
“A well-installed and maintained fire door can really be the difference between life and death for building occupants. We urge all tradespeople to use our new online fire door checklist to help assess whether fire doors they are responsible for are safe and legally compliant.”