Fire Doors news

In the immediate aftermath of Grenfell, investigators found multiple examples of non-compliance in terms of best practice and workmanship. It was clear that a series of professional and institutional failings contributed to the fire. However, what also emerged was a worrying lack of clarity surrounding regulations and compliance processes. Hackitt Review findings The Hackitt Review, the main post-Grenfell fire safety inquiry, described roles and responsibilities for building safety as ‘...

As the rising number of COVID admissions pushes patient capacity limits, ensuring compliant fire safety has never been more important. As hospitals battle through the second major wave of the virus, concerns have been raised around the NHS’ on-going maintenance backlog and the impact on safety and infrastructure. In January 2021, figures suggested that the total backlog was the equivalent of the annual running cost of the entire NHS estate, which was around £9.7bn in 2019/2020. Em...

Currently progressing its way through Parliament, the Fire Safety Bill 2020 proposes fundamental changes to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The changes will action the recommendations identified by the Grenfell Tower public inquiry and the Dame Judith Hackett review which found current building and fire safety regulations needed a “major reform” in order to prioritize and protect residents’ safety. In conjunction with the Building Safety Bill, which overha...

Fire door safety in the medical sector can be challenging, especially as many occupants may require some degree of assistance in the event of a fire. In a busy building such as a hospital, it can be tempting to wedge open internal fire doors to assist with free movement, but this practice is illegal and puts the patients, staff and building at risk. The Agrippa sound-activated fire door holder offers the ideal solution for the medical sector, allowing internal fire doors to...

Many leisure facilities hold their doors open to welcome new and existing members, especially at this busy time of year, following the festivities and New Year celebrations. Customers in the leisure industries have admitted to using kettlebells to keep fire doors open, which increases the risk of fire spreading. Holding open fire doors with a weight or heavy object prevents a fire door from closing if a fire occurs. Fire, toxic fumes, and smoke will then travel through a building risking life a...

A full Salamander system has been successfully installed into the Emmaus Trust care home in Cumbria. A total of 25 closers, three boosters, and one controller were installed into the care home by Castle Alarms, an approved installer of Geofire’s Salamander range of products. The radio-controlled, wireless system was installed into the care home with minor disturbance to the building’s fabric or residents. free-swing mode Door operation is light and easy when in the free swing...

Geofire will be exhibiting at the USHA Fire Seminar on 10th – 11th June at the County Hotel in Newcastle upon Tyne. The Universities Safety and Health Association (USHA) promotes safety and health in higher education ensuring the well-being of university staff, students, and visitors. With this in mind, we will be demonstrating how our range of Agrippa and Salamander wire-free door holders and closers can help your building to become compliant to the highest level.

Dräger, a pioneer in the fields of medical and safety technology, is calling for fire escape hoods to become part of any fire safety plan where evacuation takes more than a couple of minutes – including educational facilities, hospitals, hotels and high-rise buildings. Fire escape hoods are designed to provide wearers with crucial minutes of protection from fire-related vapors, particles and gases, including carbon-monoxide. Dräger’s PARAT smoke hood range provide wearers...

A massive £200,000 fine plus costs and a four-month suspended prison sentence, handed down to a central London hotel owner for putting lives at risk by flouting fire safety laws, is the latest in a number of high-profile prosecutions sending out a strong message to those that own and manage hotels about the importance of fire safety. When fire safety officers visited the six-floor, 18-room hotel to carry out a routine inspection they discovered numerous fire safety breaches, including fai...

From January 17 – January 19, 2023, Coopers Fire will be exhibiting as part of the UK Fire Pavilion on Stand F27 in Hall 4 in the Fire and Rescue area, at Intersec 2023 - the region’s largest gathering of fire professionals showcasing the latest firefighting technologies, the best international standards and practices, and supported by the Dubai Civil Defence. Intersec, the internationally renowned and most important global emergency services, security and safety event will mark its...

Geofire’s new wire-free Agrippa fire door holder is a significant technological breakthrough that delivers new levels of functionality and reliability. Easy to install and program, the Agrippa holder allows fire doors to be held open for ease of access, releasing them in the event of a fire alarm sounding, to prevent the spread of fire and smoke. Advanced digital technology enables Geofire’s new Agrippa wire-free fire door holder to uniquely ‘listen and learn’ the sound...

Automatic gates remain an increasingly popular security choice for family homes, business premises, or public buildings – anywhere that full control over access is needed. Here, Jamie Allam, CEO Amthal supports a new campaign by the Door Hardware Federation (DHF) to show why it’s so important to focus on correct installation and maintenance, to maximize their potential and ensure they are safe and secure. Powered and automated gates are more frequently becoming part of the design o...

Despite their quaint façades, modern care home environments are under consistent pressure to secure the safety and care of vulnerable residents and staff. Between funding constraints, staff retention, and the reverberations of COVID-19, the UK’s 17,000 care homes and their 400,000 residents face several challenges to provide safe and comfortable settings for occupants. Where the safety and care of residents is concerned, external regulation from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is...

Installers or specifiers seeking a fire-rated foam for sealing linear joints that meets the practical challenges, as well as all current European regulatory requirements, can rely on the performance of Nullifire FF197 Gun Grade Fire Rated PU Foam, one of the ranges of high-performance Nullifire products, manufactured by Tremco CPG. As a modified single component, polyurethane foam, Nullifire FF197 has been developed to speed the installation of fire doors in situations from shops and schoo...

On 13th October, 2022, everything at AQUASYS in Linz will be under the motto: Firefighting in rail vehicles. AQUASYS will discuss with international customers: the current standards for fire extinguishing systems, the results of fire tests that take place on-site, results of fire test simulations and The challenges of different vehicle design for firefighting. Over the summer months, AQUASYS conducted numerous fire tests at the test site of the Linz Regional Fire Brigade Association. S...

Re-development, restoration, retrofit. No longer are these terms modestly viewed as construction buzzwords. Across the world, there’s an increasing appreciation and a budding culture that maintaining older buildings is the way forward for the planet and its people. Globally, cities are said to be responsible for 78% of the energy consumption, of which, buildings account for around a third of the total. And when users consider that up to 80% of the current buildings are expected to still b...

Amthal is supporting Fire Door Safety Week 2022, the national safety awareness campaign first launched back in 2013 in response to a legacy of fire door neglect. Taking place from Monday 31 October until Friday 4 November, the 2022 edition of Fire Door Safety Week is being run by the British Woodworking Federation with the support of a number of partners, among them the Home Office’s own National Fire Safetseveral the National Fire Chiefs Council and the London Fire Brigade. Fire Safety...

Purpose built to compartmentalize fire and smoke, fire doors are recognized as a critical element of passive fire protection and exist in practically every building where we work, sleep, and live. Such is their importance; they are acknowledged by several professional bodies and are a legal requirement in non-domestic premises and houses in multiple occupations (HMOs). Day to day we use them without a thought, yet fire doors consist of much more than a simple piece of furniture. A fire door is...

Kirk Smith of Allegion UK discusses fire door neglect and how to spot the potential faults that could be compromising your fire safety procedures. Purpose-built to compartmentalize fire and smoke, fire doors are recognized as a critical element of passive fire protection and exist in practically every building where we work, sleep, and live. Such is their importance; they are acknowledged by several professional bodies and are a legal requirement in non-domestic premises and houses in multiple...

A hotel owner has been fined £50,000 for continuing to allow guests to check in to his East London hotel despite being issued with a prohibition notice for serious fire safety failings. deficiency in fire safety When inspectors from the London Fire Brigade (LFB) first visited The Bank Hotel in Barking in May 2018, they saw numerous examples of deficiencies in fire safety regulations that were enough to warrant a prohibition notice. Some of these included a lack of fire doors, no smoke de...

For Fire Prevention Month this October 2022, the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), part of the non-profit safety science organization - UL Research Institutes, has released new videos combining more than 10 years of data with custom 3D modeling and real-world footage from the organization’s full-scale fire experiments. The first video in the series shows how a home fire grows and spreads, underscores the dangers of smoke, and encourages everyone to have and practice a fire escape pla...

Of the numerous failings noted by inspectors, it was discovered that “necessary actions” had not been completed following a fire risk assessment that was conducted in March 2022. This included personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPS) either not being in place or not being kept up to date.  The CQC report also outlined that staffing levels at Lyndhurst Residential Care Home were not safe, which meant some residents did not “always receive timely support from staff.&rdqu...

Responsible persons for residential and management companies are being urged to prepare themselves for upcoming changes to The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, with regards to Fire Door maintenance. From 22 January 2023, there will be new legal requirements for all multi-occupied residential buildings in England with stories over 11 meters in height. This includes undertaking quarterly checks of all fire doors, and self-closing devices in the common areas. New regulations  There w...

The latest webinar from the FPA, which ran on 20 September 2022, welcomed the FPA's Senior Associate Trainer, Mike Floyd to share his expertise and guidance on fire door safety. At this event, he shared a few key extracts from the fire door module of the Understanding Fire Doors training course offered by the FPA. The webinar began with a brief introduction to the key areas of fire door setup, before moving on to points of concern and common alterations that can result in fire door performance...

Greenwich Council in London is in breach of housing standards, including failing to remedy hundreds of high-risk fire safety defects and having more than 400 fire risk assessments of its housing stock outstanding. The council was also found by the Regulator of Social Housing to have more than 1,000 communal properties and over 10,000 domestic properties without a current electrical condition report, as well as failures of asbestos and water safety. Home Standard Breach The regulator concluded...

Mann McGowan is pleased to announce an agreement with Emirates Technotrade LLC to expand further the distribution of Mann McGowan intumescent fire, acoustic, and smoke seals to the construction and passive fire protection industries in the United Arab Emirates and throughout the Middle East. Fire seal distribution Mann McGowan already has a successful existing distribution and customer network in the region, and the agreement further strengthens the company’s ambition to become a pioneer...

If the user is a holiday let owner, they should know that fire risk assessment (FRA) is a legal requirement in ensuring the safety of the occupants. So, as the holiday season approaches, it’s important to get it done and signed off soon. Discover the importance of fire risk assessments for holiday lets and what they entail. Holiday Let Fire Risk Assessment As part of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 FSO, performing a fire risk assessment on a holiday let property is a legal...

Camden Door Controls is pleased to bring to market its 1500 line of Fire Rated electric strikes for mortise and cylindrical lockets. The line includes a CX-ED1500LP low profile strike with one latch monitor, as well as a CX-ED1500L2 strike with two latch monitors. They’re available in a range of faceplate packs for both deadbolts and latch bolts. UL1034 and UL 294 listed strikes Camden’s CX-ED1500 strikes for mortise and cylindrical locksets combine the high quality of European br...

As educational facilities revel in a summertime of empty hallways and classrooms, Sue Corrick of Allegion UK explains why it’s the perfect time to assess fire door hardware. The great British summertime has arrived, known for its quintessential rainy days, packed out beach fronts and extended educational term breaks. By the time its August, students of all ages - from primary schools to universities – would have dashed out the doors, in preparation for a summer of fun, leaving behin...

Amthal has worked in partnership with Abels Moving Services Ltd to deliver an all-encompassing takeover and upgrade of the fire safety and security solution at its central site. Based in London, Abels Moving Services is one of the UK’s pioneer specialist international moving companies.  Recognized for its high commitment to quality, since 1988 and renewed in 2016, it has held a royal warrant to Her Majesty the Queen for removals and storage services. With specialist teams also renow...