Why Fire Door Gaps May Be a Problem?
Fire doors are designed to stop fires from spreading, but have you ever thought about why they get so small in the first place? Well, to understand why this happens, you need to know how a fire works. The fire is started by something flammable, like paper, wood or clothes, and the heat is sent from somewhere warm by a chemical reaction to the fuel – but that’s only the first of a series of events that will see the fire grow and burn. The fire then needs an ignition source, like petrol or electricity, to send its flames sky high and travel to the other side of the building before dying out and going out again.
If the gaps in the fire door are too large, the heat will be pulled out of the building and spread to other rooms, causing the fire to die out quickly and without much damage. However, if the gaps are too small, the heat will not be pulled out of the building very quickly and the smoke will start to fill up those tiny gaps, causing the fire to grow in size and intensity over time. This can cause huge damage to properties, burning everything in sight and causing massive amounts of damage to the people living in the building. This means that the fire door gaps must be fixed immediately – otherwise the fire will continue to spread and cause more damage to the people in the building.
So why do fire door gaps seem like such a big problem? It’s not just because the gaps allow smoke and fumes to go right through to another floor in the building – when they are small, this is hardly noticeable to the building occupants. Also, in the event of a fire, the fumes from the smoke can be inhaled by the building occupants, causing illness. Overall, it is essential that all fire doors have regular inspections to make sure they are not sitting idle or not being damaged and/or failing to work effectively.