Many Fire Doors in Communal Flats owned by FHDC are non-compliant

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Front door Fire doors hung in communal flats, owned by Folkestone & Hythe District and which open up onto a communal space to allow tenants to escape in the event of a fire, are according to a fire safety expert of 35 years, and a variety of sources in the Council, not the right fire doors.

Many of these doors were hung during the period 2010 to 2020. Evidence provided by a variety of sources also state those at EKH and the Council, after EKHs demise in 2020, due to our eighteen month investigation, state “the front doors hung between 2010 & 2020 were only fire tested one side.” according to the documents they supplied.

Our fire safety expert reviewed the material and agreed, most of the doors hung in the time frame above, were not compliant. Yet five years on, many of these non-compliant fire doors are still hanging in communal flats owned by Folkestone & Hythe District Council.

Members of the Shepway Vox Team & the fire safety expert visited communal flats across the district over several weeks. On each occasion we found substantial evidence to support the claims made by a variety of sources who work for the Council.

The front doors in communal flats must be FD30s doors. The 30 stands for 30 minutes. The S stands for smoke, so the door is able to stop the spread of cold smoke, due to them having smoke brushes in addition to intumescent strips. That S then prevents smoke filling the communal area; which is an escape rate for tenants. Also, a FD30S door is tested each side of the doorset. However, many of the doors we saw in FHDC owned communal flats were FD30 doors. This was supported by the evidence provided by the sources and verified by the fire safety expert, as the certification for the FD30 doors shows they were fire tested on one side only.

Smoke inhalation is the cause of death in around 42% of fire-related fatalities, so these strips on doors that are FD30S-compliant Fire Doors could be the difference between life and death.

This means many of the doors which were hung were not compliant with the previous Approved Document B of the Building Regulations 2010. Appendix C (fire doorsets), section 3 states:

“The requirement is for test exposure from each side of the doorset separately.”

The only exception to this is elevator lift doors, which can still be tested from the outer side only.

The current legislation Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and the amended Building Regulation’s Approved Document B (Fire Safety) – December 2022, still maintains that Fire Doors should be tested from both sides.

Also many of the doors which were inspected did not have the required fire certificate label on them. These can usually found on the door top edge or with plastic plugs on the hanging edge. On the door shown we did not find a label, or any plastic plugs. However, identifying fire doors is not always straight forward because quite often the installer has planed-off the label or painted over the label or plug (there were no paint overs of any of the doors that we saw). A competent installer would always ensure that labels and plugs are retained for the purposes of identification and inspection in the future.

We would advise any FHDC tenant in a communal block of flats, to take a look on the top edge of the door (carefully) to see if there is a label, and the hinged side of the door, to look for colour plugs. For those in sheltered, semi sheltered accommodation,  ask a family member to check, or a friend who is agile enough. If you in general housing have a look too. 

Here are some examples

If  you can find no label stating it is a fire door and who manufactured it, or any coloured plugs, DON’T PANIC. Either contact the Council housing team (with photographic evidence there is no label or coloured plugs), or book an inspection with a Kent Fire & Rescue Fire Safety Inspector

Over the next few weeks, we’ll provide further evidence that contractors were aware that many of the doors hung and paid for by FHDC, were not compliant with the legislation.

The Shepway Vox Team

Dissent is NOT a Crime