One thing that I always wanted to know is why are fire doors important. Fire safety in any structure is always very important, especially in commercial buildings like hospitals, hotels, and offices.
Fire rated doors play a crucial role in containing fire incidents, providing crucial time for safe evacuation and minimizing property damage.
In this post, we will explore the importance of fire doors and why it is important to keep the fire doors closed. So, let’s get started!
What are Fire Doors?
A fire door refers to a type of door installed in structures such as hospitals, which helps to minimize the spreading of fire and smoke within the building during emergencies.
They are mainly used to create enclosures in a building for the purpose of confining fire and smoke.
In hospitals, such doors play a vital role in preventing the moving of fire from one area to another. Hence, allowing enough time for conducting evacuation or rescue operations to protect patients, and staff from the danger of fire.
Fire doors are made of materials that are fire and heat-resistant. They normally have galvanized sheets with lock-formed edges at their perimeters to avoid the transference of heat through the smoke.
These doors are significant in building safety. They prevent fire from quickly spreading out while also helping the emergency masterminds deal with the occurrence.
Importance of Fire Doors
Having fire doors in hospitals has the following uses. Here is an elaboration on why fire doors are vital in hospitals.
1. Containment of Fire
These doors help the segmentation of the hospital. It helps to confine the fires to particular areas and not let them spread widely across the hospital. Hospital doors, specifically designed as fire doors, play a crucial role in this containment.
2. Protection of Patients and Staff
They protect patients, staff, and visitors from smoke and flames. These doors provide them extra time to exit the building during a fire break.
3. Ensuring Continuity of Care
These doors prevent the spread of smoke and fire. It supports the continued operations of a hospital through the uninterrupted provision of patient care and other services.
4.Enhancing Emergency Preparedness
It further reveals that fire doors are part of the emergency plan in the management of fire occurrences and their impact on the operations of the hospital.
5. Protecting Property and Equipment
On the same note, they prevent valuable property and equipment in the hospitals from getting damaged by fire.
Know Why is it Important to Keep Fire Doors Closed
Keeping fire doors closed is crucial for several reasons in ensuring building safety during a fire emergency.
1.Protection of Escape Routes
Closed fire doors ensure that corridors remain clear by not allowing fire or smoke to penetrate the door. It segregates the two areas hence ensuring that the occupants can easily and safely evacuate the building.
2. Delaying Fire Spread
Fire doors operate by closing automatically in the event of a fire. Thus, assisting in the prevention of fire from spreading to the other sections of the building.
Due to this, the people in the building are given enough time to flee. Also, the extinguishers are allowed enough time to end the fire.
3. Compliance with Regulations
In many places, it is legal that the fire doors remain closed at all times. They are only held open unless in the open position by an authorized fire door closer, which is meant to close upon experiencing a fire.
4. Enhanced Effectiveness
They are used where it is necessary to have a barrier that can actively prevent the spread of fire for a given amount of time when the door is shut. This way, they will remain closed to provide the intended function as required by the areas they are located in.
5. Minimizing Property Damage
Closing of fire doors prevents the spread of fire and its effects to other parts of the building thus it prevents any damage to costly items.
In a Nutshell
Closure of fire doors matters is not limited to legal requirements, but is rather an important facet of fire protection in buildings. Keeping these doors closed helps in the prevention of fire and smoke spread within the buildings including the hospital and hence protects lives and property.
Closing fire doors provides for clear hallways during evacuation, inhibits fire spread, and follows the legal requirements formulated to improve safety.
During emergencies, closed fire doors are of great importance as they offer the required time for evacuation of the occupants as well as ensuring that the responders annul the calamity decisively.
Therefore, while selecting fire doors, it is absolutely mandatory to make sure that they remain closed under all circumstances, for complete fire safety of any building.
You can also contact TRIO India for fire-rated doors for your hospital, or any other requirements.