Fire doors

This fire safety guidance is for residents living in flats. If you’d like fire safety information for residents living in houses, tap here.

Fire doors are crucial for your safety:

They help to contain the fire within an area, allowing for clear evacuation and safe access for the emergency services. Fire doors are specifically designed to withstand fire for up to 30 minutes.

In a block of flats, you’ll find fire and smoke doors on the stairwells, corridors, and on the front doors of flats. You’ll also see them protecting areas where there’s a risk of fire, such as bin storage rooms or mains electricity service cupboards.

If your front door leads into a communal area in your building, it has to be a fire door. Sometimes you’ll find them inside flats, too, but this depends on an individual flat’s specific design and layout.

How often will you (Be One Homes) check the fire doors in my building?

For high rise buildings, 18 metres or above, or at least seven stories in height:

We'll check flat entrance fire doors annually.
We'll check communal fire doors, such as bin chute rooms, storage cupboards, cross corridor/landing doors quarterly.

For medium rise buildings, 11 metres to 17.9 metres in height, or at five to six stories in height:

We'll check flat entrance fire doors annually.
We'll check communal fire doors, such as bin chute rooms, storage cupboards, cross corridor/landing doors quarterly.

For low rise buildings, two to four stories in height with shared communal areas:

While we've no set intervals to inspect these buildings, we'll still check them regularly - including during visits for other purposes. If you think something's wrong, please call us on 01204 328000 to report any suspected faults to us.

What do you look for when you check fire doors?

Any damage to the door's glazing or transfer grille.
The door closer shuts the door.
The door closes correctly around the whole frame.
Any gaps around the door frame, seals, and hinges.
No visible damage.

Please allow us access for fire door checks:

We’ll contact you by letter before inspections take place. If you’re not at home when we call, we’ll leave a calling card, with contact numbers for you to arrange a convenient time for the inspection.

By not allowing access for essential health and safety inspections, you may be in breach of your tenancy and, more importantly, placing your safety and your neighbours’ safety at risk.

Never carry out any repairs or alterations to your fire door:

Repairs should always be carried out by a qualified professional, and you should always refer any repairs to us.

Please note that replacing flooring or carpet can also affect a fire door’s ability to open and close properly. Please contact us to check before any replacements are carried out.

Five steps to check your fire doors are working correctly:

1. Certification:

Look for a label or plug on top (or occasionally on the side) of the door. Without a certification mark, you cannot be sure this really is a fire door.

How to check: use a mirror or the selfie function on your phone's camera.