Wedged open fire doors cause damage and incur £400k fine

Posted on April 14, 2016

The operators of a care home in the north east have been instructed to pay a £400k fine for five breaches of the fire safety rules.

The breaches were uncovered by the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service when they were called to the blaze in one of the resident’s bedrooms.

Fire officers discovered that the fire doors in the property had been wedged open providing no protection to the building or its inhabitants.

The fire breach meant that the corridor soon became filled with smoke, meaning that staff at the care home could not access the elderly resident trapped in the room, requiring the fire brigade to rescue the occupant via a bedroom window.

The care home had failed to carry out actions identified in a fire risk assessment, including the installation of electromagnetic fire door hold open and closing devices.

Wedging doors open, even for a short while, is not only illegal but highly dangerous. According to the Fire and Rescue Services in England, care homes are considered to represent the highest risk from fire and this latest incident highlights how important the management of fire doors is.

Geofire’s wire-free Agrippa range of fire door holders and ‘swing-free’ closers are the perfect compliant solution to the problem of holding open fire doors to ease access throughout a building, closing them in the event of a fire emergency to protect a building’s occupants.

The Agrippa range is the first of its kind on the market that uses next generation, digital technology to uniquely ‘listen and learn’ the sound of a specific fire alarm. They are wire-free, compact and easy to fit and can be programmed for timed daily release. The products are battery operated, have EN1155 approval and are CE marked.