How Long Should a Fire Door Last in a Fire?

If you’ve been keeping up with our past blogs, you’ll hopefully know what a fire door is. In our previous articles we’ve gone in to depth about many topics relating to fire doors. One thing we haven’t touched on though, is how long should a fire door last during a fire?

This is obviously a very important question. You need to know how long a door will contain a fire and how long will a fire door last. This is all part of a building’s fire compartmentation strategy. Fire doors prevent fires from easily spreading room-to-room.

By slowing down a fire, fire doors save lives. They also buy valuable time for firefighters and building inhabitants.

Fire Door Inspection Services

But just how much time, exactly?

Well, that depends on the type of fire door and its certification. Most fire doors are marked as FD30, FD60, FD90 or FD120.

These codes indicate the length of time a fire door is able to provide resistance to smoke and fire: 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes or 120 minutes.

The type of fire doors fitted in your building must meet the requirements of the compartmentation and evacuation plans for the building, which are drawn up when the building is first designed (or altered).

You will be able to learn which level of fire door resistance you require from your FIRE SAFETY MANUAL, which should contain compartmentation and evacuation plans.

You must ensure your fire doors are fully compliant at all times, otherwise they may fail after 5 minutes, never mind 30!

ANY failing, no matter how small, could mean that your fire doors will not perform to the required standard in the one and only case that they may be called upon to do so. Failure to maintain them attracts the same penalties as any other fire safety equipment, such as alarms or sprinklers.

fire compartmentation fail

Looking for a fire door inspection?

We are certified by TWO third party, independent, UKAS accredited agencies for:

  • Fire Door Inspections
  • Fire Door Maintenance
  • Fire Door Installation
  • Fire Stopping

We are the only company in Scotland to hold accreditations from both the FDIS (Fire Door Inspection Scheme) and BM Trada Q Mark for these activities and we have an extensive reach throughout Scotland and beyond.

If you would to get in touch to find out more, please contact Mark McQuade at [email protected] or call 01563 53 55 11

In the meantime, feel free to browse our website.

You can find us on Twitter and LinkedIn with the following hashtags: ProtectingLivesPreventingLoss #Worksmartworksafe #Firedoormaster #MakeItWorksmart