Fire door

[Bigmac24]

Morning all.

question for you all, our EYFS class and Year 1 have a door splitting the 2 classrooms up.

This is not a fire door, juts a standard wooden one with a wooden wall behind the sink area. I have said to our executive it needs replacing with fire doors and or blocking up.

Am i correct?

Thanks

[Nail]

What did your fire risk assessor say?

Without having more details it will be hard for any to comment.

[Vera]

Beat me to it Nail..

Check your last fire RA to see if anything is mentioned and if not make a note to check next time they are in.

[trout39843]

Hi bro. according to the RRFSO and BB100, as long as the two rooms have fire breaks around them, then they would be considered one room. We have a similar situation when we rebuilt in '13-'14 and I questioned the architecht on this and we looked it up to confirm it.
Hope this helps bro.

[Bigbear69]

your school may be split up into zones which contain several classrooms and other types of rooms, its only the zones that need fire doors.

[AndyCornwall]

We have recently had a survey to identify fire compartments and as it turned out we have way too many fire doors, and the fire compartments were adjusted along different building lines.

Each building will be different of course and your fire risk assessor will be the best person to turn to for advice.

A fire door is only useful if it part of a compartment.

Andy

[Nail]

We have recently had a survey to identify fire compartments and as it turned out we have way too many fire doors, and the fire compartments were adjusted along different building lines.

Each building will be different of course and your fire risk assessor will be the best person to turn to for advice.

A fire door is only useful if it part of a compartment.

Andy

Too many?

not heard that being an issue before!

[AndyCornwall]

I know it seemed odd to me, but when we had the doors replaced a few years ago every door in the school except exterior ones were 30 minute fire doors.

Toilet doors are fire doors, cupboard doors etc. the requirements seem complex, hence getting a proper FRA in but the crux seems to be except for refuge,s can ppl get out ok and is there a purpose to having fire door where a fire door is. An example given to me was on an exit route having fire doors on the way to the exit.

Andy

[Nail]

I'm assuming (hoping) that you haven't had to change them back to being non-fire doors?

[AndyCornwall]

Once all the paperwork has been finalised some will stop being fire doors, which just means the fire door sign comes off and hey presto, not a fire door any more and ppl can wedge them open without me hassling them.

Andy

[EBJ]

Too many?

not heard that being an issue before!

Wevwere once told we had to many fire signs, work tat one out.

[gadget300]

Essentially are the 2 rooms compartmentalised from each other in every other area apart from the door. This would include above false ceilings too, are the walls fireproofed between the 2 classrooms, if not then I would say the 2 rooms would be classed as one fire compartment and a fire door would not be required. However without looking at the entire layout as part of the fire risk assessment should be then I couldn’t say for sure. If your FRA is due shortly for review I would suggest this is bought up and analysed.

A fire door being fitted where it is not needed will not hurt anything apart from budget, however the other way round could be very costly.

[AndyCornwall]

A FRA will be needed, it's going to matter where the exits from the classes are to a safe place, outside hopefully, and what purpose a fire door between those class rooms would serve. Think of fire doors as door sets not just the opening bits as they are certified as a unit and adding a 30 minute fire door in an opening which previously did not have a fire door will prevent certification.

I'm sure you will be surprised at the things you don't need to do and those you do. I was, still am.