Hi,
I'm a leaseholder in a terraced building with 2 flats - ground floor and first floor. I have a fire door inspection next month and wanted some advice in advance.
Because there is a very small "communual area" entrance hall (1.5m x 1m) and a shared front door, both flats need to have fire doors. Both flats do already have rated fire doors. The ground floor flat has a door that opens inwards with an automatic closer.
My flat is the first floor flat, where the door to the flat opens directly onto a staircase, and so this door opens outwards. This, to me, poses an issue for my door having an automatic closer. There cannot be one on the inside as it would pose an injury hazard - coming down the stairs to exit the door, your head is positioned exactly where a closer would need to go. On the outside of the door however, my door needs to swing out pretty much completely open for the front building door to be free to swing open the other way. There is no gap between the door frame and the wall. As such, it looks likely to me that even the slimmest models of automatic closer could interfere with or slow down my exit of the building in an emergency.
Ultimately my question is, are there any common-sense examptions to these regulations in circumstances like this involving older buildings, where a risk assessment might suggest that a common safety measure actually makes the situation worse? Or are fire door regulations completely immutable, no matter the situation? This is the kind of issue I would only want to point out if there's any chance of it helping me by keeping my front door as less of an obstruction. On the other hand, if things like automatic door closers are completely non-negatiable in any circumstance, I'd rather not point out any potetial problems to anyone - as I would never want it to lead to expensive building altertions beng proposed and then imposed upon us as as leaseholders.
If it makes any difference both flats have independent rear access, and so both already have multiple escape routes available in an emergency.
Thanks!
