Perhaps you can help me here please with a rumbling disagreement I have where I work. I work in a care home and it has been suggested that as there’s a sprinkler system fitted, the fire doors aren’t as critical. Should the integrity of fire doors be less important if a sprinkler system is fitted, or would I be correct in thinking the sprinklers are irrelevant and the fire doors should still be fully compliant with current fire door regulations? I have been trained in fire door inspections, so have followed current regulations, but am new to working in a building with a sprinkler system. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There are different devices used to provide protection against spread of fire and smoke.  Sprinklers and doors are two of them and these devices should be used towards a holistic approach to dealing with fire risk.  Clearly, a building with a sprinkler system and fire doors should provide a higher level of protection than a building with fire doors alone.

The Responsible Person should carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment to include the risk to relevant persons at the building and factor in the protection where it is provided by the sprinklers, the fire doors and other devices appropriately. No doubt, using this holistic approach, both sprinklers and fire doors together will form a large part of the fire protections at the building. Both should then be checked and maintained in good condition as appropriate to the fire strategy to provide safety in a fire at the building. It should be clear from the fire risk assessment to what extent the devices provide protection and therefore what is required from the maintenance regime.

On 27/03/2025 at 18:44, Guest Neil said:

 Perhaps you can help me here please with a rumbling disagreement I have where I work. I work in a care home and it has been suggested that as there’s a sprinkler system fitted, the fire doors aren’t as critical. Should the integrity of fire doors be less important if a sprinkler system is fitted, or would I be correct in thinking the sprinklers are irrelevant and the fire doors should still be fully compliant with current fire door regulations? I have been trained in fire door inspections, so have followed current regulations, but am new to working in a building with a sprinkler system. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

A sprinkler system is one of the slowest systems to react, slower than heat and smoke detectors, and so there would be considerable production of hazardous fire effluent before activation, which would be a risk to life. Fire doors are still required and the only relaxation was the fitting of self closers to bedrooms, however this approach has been proven to be flawed and as part of Building Regulation changes requiring mandatory sprinkler protection to new or altered care homes this relaxation has been removed.