The video of an unnamed hospital was shot by Theodore Firedoor, a campaign on behalf of the Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS) that was set up to encourage people to share images of “dodgy” fire doors.
“Today I’m investigating reports of dodgy fire doors at a major city hospital,” the narrator explains in the video. “The stakes would be especially high in the case of a fire here, so the state of the fire doors is absolutely critical.”
In the video we see a range of doors that have been poorly maintained and installed. The first set of doors inspected reveals a “distinct lack of maintenance.” The doors, which are in constant use, and usually subject to frequent impacts from hospital beds, amongst other things, reveal damage to the meeting edges in particular. Without door edge protection products, the doors have been damaged to the point where you can see straight through the gaps between them. Not very likely to stop a fire then.
The next set of doors is even worse, showing a gap for the intumescent seals between the doors, an adhesive layer for the seals, but no seals. Another set has been repaired using wood filler.
In an environment where many patients are unlikely to be able to evacuate without assistance, fire doors that are not able to contain a blaze for the required 60 minutes are a huge risk.
Of all the institutions you would expect to get details such as this right, it’s a hospital, where saving lives is the core objective. What point is there saving a life if you then put it in danger from fire?
The hospital shown in the film was not identified, but a spokesperson for FDIS told IFSEC Global that the problems were reported to the fire safety manager before the filming took place. The spokesperson continued:
I have chosen this hospital because when I initially reported important (and basic) issues with the fire doors the fire safety manager was quite, dismissive, showed little knowledge about fire doors and failed to take me up on the free of charge help I offered (and then only carried out the most basic of improvements, still leaving the fire doors unfit).
So the fire safety manager was already aware of my concerns before we shot and released the film.
He continued to explain that from his experience he was not the first fire door inspector to have received such a dismissive response from those in charge of public buildings.
Have you seen any similar horror stories, and had your complaints fall on deaf ears?
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Sure we should be concerned at the weaknesses exposed on the hospital fire doors but remember these at least are inspected.
Look above the doors and ceilings and i am sure you will find much more shocking evidince of the lack of fire protection in the building.
Passive fire protection is not commonly understood so therefore goes un noticed on many many fire inspections.
It is not good upgrading the doors if above them there is no fire stopping on the services passing through the walls.
All valid and important points Firestop.
The work that “Theodore” is doing is to be applauded. If his effort can save just one life then it is an invaluable return.
Please continue to highlight such concerns.
True but then those areas are less exposed to the strains that these doors have obviously been put under. Hidden passive protection is less likely to be as badly damaged as this through day to day wear ie. hospital beds crashing into them etc.
Yes it’s great to highlight this stuff, try and tackle the apathy around it. The only other way is in press reports after a serious incident, and we don’t want that
Great work Theodore and Rob on bringing this to our attention. Have done a lot of work on these beasts but particularly for lead-lined doors which are usually double-leaf doorsets at least for the main entrance doors, to and in X-Ray facilities. The shear weight and vulnerability of the lead core(s) to melt earlier in the fire test cycle can rather affect the integrity of the unit! Also the lead has to pass through the door frame which again is far from ideal for maximum fire resistance properties. As hospital generally used progressive evacuation systems it is essential that fire… Read more »
This follows on from your article about hotels Rob. The public assume and expect a high level of fire-safety but as the Fire Authority have insufficient resources and organisations finances are squeezed there is no appetite to deal with it. Insufficient legislative pressure and no commercial pressure or public awareness means it goes unchecked.I still think an independent fire-rating scheme that forced organisations to display their credentials e.g. two star, five star etc. would bring the awareness and public and commercial pressure to bear. Just as you wouldn’t want to stay in a hotel with a 1 star fire safety… Read more »
Wow yes, X-ray doors are something I hadn’t even considered. That must be a really difficult area to make safe for a raft of different reasons. I suppose ideally you’d house the room within another room essentially, if that makes sense? So put the majority of the fire protection 1 step further on from the actual x-ray room… maybe?
But with a hospital, what choice do you have, really? It’s Hobsons Choice, really, isn’t it?
These X-Ray machines and MRI etc are expensive bits of equipment so they still want full fire protection even if some of it is less for life safety than asset protection. Double doors are essential as beds are often brought straight into the X-Ray room, as well as being necessary for getting the equipment in place in the first place. Doors of rooms off the X-Ray rooms also have to be X-Ray proofed with lead linings as well as each viewing area/controll room and all the glass is lead glass for X-Ray proofing. So not a lot of simple systems will… Read more »
Just had a chance to properly view Theodore’s video – this must be a fairly old hospital and I am amazed by the large number dirt retention areas (crevices, holes, unnecessary ledges, extra panels including unsealed ones added, etc.), plus general lack of cleanliness of the doors – no wonder infections rates are so high. Probably this poor level of fire safety indicates a poor level of treatment and unhealthy hygiene routines – in other words stay away from this hospital because if the infections don’t get you the fire will! Theodore this is work that you should be proud of and deserve… Read more »
Sounds expensive!
Agree wtih you I’d be very interested to know which trust it is. I even wonder if it’s one of the trusts that was identified as failing by the Government earlier this year.
@ robertpmorley, well this is quite new information for most of us. At least I didn’t know the details of smooth faces of doors for protection against bacteria and that such doors are less fire resistant. I must say this is nice expert kind of information explaining the dilemma. Can you please enlighten us about the possible solution as well?
@ DaveLalor, that would really help. This is rather an innovative idea to force the organizations rate their fire safety. Explicit display of such rating would certainly improve the general public awareness about fire safety and will make them conscious of it. Ultimately it may force them to improve fire safety measures for fear of losing number of people coming there.
Sunita, it was a learning curve for me as well but when one thinks about it, quite logical. Dust and dirt (which obviously can harbour bacteria, germs, etc.) is more likely to be able to cling onto rough surfaces and surfaces that are more inclined to the horizontal. Hence now these door surfaces are now being designed to be as vertical as possible and as smooth as possible. Further the concept is to make all hospital surfaces as hostile as possible to germs, bacteria, fungus, etc. and the easiest method is to make them inherently safer by including a biocide… Read more »
Sunita and Dave, not sure if you are being cynical here. Hospitals are already well practiced in “re-arranging” figures/statistics in ways that confuses the true picture. They did it with waiting times by re-assessing potential patients by looking at them just within the stipulated deadline and then decided that further assessment was required before any treatment could be made. They did this on junior doctor’s hours by reducing the alleged working hours but insisted that junior doctors still attended beyond their allocated hours. Again they have done this on hospital-acquired infections and yet again on higher-than-average death rates. I believe… Read more »
We all know that you can find a stat to prove whatever you want, within reason. Justification of stats is the important thing in most of those cases. I think you’re right that chasing particular fire stats won’t help too much. It should remain the domain of the fire authority to inspect and make judgments, and they should (I think) be doing it more often than they are if these pictures are anyything to go by.