Fire Doors for Hotels
In the years 2010 – 2011 there were 585 fires in hotels in Britain, and although this was a decrease when compared to previous years, it demonstrates how important it is for hotels to pay serious attention to fire safety and regulations.
Since 2006, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 has been in place, which requires businesses – including anybody “providing accommodation to paying guests” – to have an allocated “responsible person” in place, whose role it is to ensure that all relevant fire safety guidelines are being applied. In small- to medium-sized hotel businesses this is usually the owner or manager, and this person is required to carry out fire safety risk assessments and create and uphold a fire management plan.
An important feature of these risk assessments and fire management plans is the use of effective and well-maintained fire doors. When fire doors are manufactured and installed by a reputable, certified company, they offer considerable safety advantages to the hotel owner and his / her guests. In the event that a fire breaks out, fire doors will contain the smoke, heat and flames for a period of time lasting anywhere from half an hour to two hours, depending on the type of door that is purchased. This enables occupants to escape without becoming overcome by smoke, and it limits the devastating fire and smoke damage to a small portion of the building, rather than allowing it to spread, risking lives and property in the process.
Hotels face particular challenges with regard to fire safety that many other types of business do not normally need to address, so it is especially important that an effective fire safety plan is in place. Guests staying in hotel accommodation find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, so may take longer to evacuate a building than if they were at home or at work. They may be woken from sleep by fire alarms and have to negotiate rooms, doors, corridors and stairwells which they are unaccustomed to in an attempt to find their way out, and if they are enjoying a hen party or stag weekend away from home, there may be alcohol added into the mix, too.
Neil Ashdown, general manager of the Fire Door Inspection Scheme, explained, “In this environment people and escape routes require greater protection, not less, and effective fire doors are probably the single most important element in giving people enough time to safely evacuate a hotel”.
All of this means that hotels have even more of a responsibility than many other businesses to ensure that their fire safety plan is foolproof, and that the equipment and policies they use are the best they can get. Regular safety checks, carried out by the designated “responsible person” need to include examination of all fire doors and checking that the door fits the frame well, that there is no damage to the door, frame or seal, that fire doors are not being propped open, and that the seals remain in good condition.
