fire doors closing at night

[Guest Logan]

Are there specific rules on when fire doors in communal areas should close in the evening?

[Tom Sutton]

In my opinion, any fire doors that are held open with approved devices should be released each evening because a door left in the open position, for prolonged periods, could set due to the weight of the door, however there is no legal requirement. 

[AnthonyB]

I assume you mean doors normally held open by an approved automatic release device and not just hooked or wedged open. Tradition under old legislation was to require them to be shut at night in hotels and boarding houses, but as Tom says it's no longer explicit under the current regime, but still worth doing

[Guest Charlie]

Hello We live in three story building sheltered housing we on top floor one Neibour will not allow any other neighbors to close the 

automatic fire door meaning it’s held open 24 hours every day since they moved in last year .

This worries other residents on our floor as we would all feel safer if door were at least closed in sleeping hours .

on our floor residents have disabilities & aged meaning delay in response to fire .

We believe it’s in best interest of all residents to have fire door closed at night .I have tried serval times to close the automatic fire door

only to be verbally & threatened by this one neighbor who will not allow the doors to be closed at all .

 

[Tom Sutton]

Is this fire door being kept open by a magnetic device or similar because the general advice for hold open devices is it should be released during the night time because if it is held in the open position 24/7 the hinges could set and not work properly.

You need to speak to the Responsible Person (RP) as defined by The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 they should be able to rectify the situation.

[Guest Charlie]

Thank you for the advise I will definitely follow this up as this situation worries us & other residents.