Why a fire door inspection must look beyond the door itself.

The sign communicates an instruction. It does not establish the fire resistance performance of the door. And a competent fire door inspection must establish not only whether a door can do its job, but first, what that job is supposed to be.

Illustrative inspection photograph: Aaron Manning / West Midlands Fire Service, IMG_5087, CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped and resized. The photograph does not show the building described below and does not establish a defect or compliance finding.

During a recent fire door inspection in a public building in Ireland, something immediately caught my attention.

Every single door in the building had a fire door sign attached to it.

Not just doors protecting escape routes, stairwells or fire compartments. Every door.

It was apparent from the outset that many of these doors were unlikely to be designated fire doors. More importantly, there was no obvious justification for every door in the building requiring fire resistance.

Rather than simply accepting the signs at face value and proceeding with a standard inspection, I requested the building's Fire Safety Certificate (FSC) file from the person having control of the premises.

I wanted to establish exactly what the building's approved fire safety design required.

By reviewing the granted FSC documentation and associated drawings, I was able to identify the locations where fire-resisting doors were specified and the relevant fire resistance requirements.

The finding? Fewer than 60% of the doors were specified as requiring fire resistance in the granted FSC documentation I reviewed.

Yet 100% carried fire door signs.

At first glance, this might seem like a relatively harmless mistake. After all, what harm can a small blue fire door sign cause?

Potentially, quite a lot.

Does a fire door sign prove fire resistance?

A fire door sign serves an important purpose. It identifies an operational fire safety requirement and communicates instructions to building occupants.

However, attaching a sign to an ordinary door does not make it a fire door.

A fire-resisting doorset must be capable of providing the necessary fire and, where specified, smoke resistance. Its performance depends on the complete assembly, including the door leaf, frame, glazing, seals, hinges, closing devices, hardware and installation.

In Ireland, the Department of Housing's Fire Safety Guide for Building Owners and Operators (2023) provides guidance on the identification, inspection and maintenance of fire doors, including the use of appropriate signage.

But there is an important distinction between correctly identifying a fire door and simply placing a sign on a door.

The sign communicates an instruction. It does not establish the fire resistance performance of the door.

What Are the Dangers of Incorrect Fire Door Signage?

There are several potential consequences of indiscriminately labelling ordinary doors as fire doors.

1. Creating a false sense of security

This is perhaps the most concerning issue.

A member of staff, building manager or visiting contractor could reasonably assume that a door displaying a fire door sign provides a degree of fire and smoke protection.

If that assumption is incorrect, there is a risk that people will place reliance on protection that does not exist.

During an actual fire, that misunderstanding could become significant.

2. Undermining the importance of genuine fire doors

When every door is labelled a fire door, the signage begins to lose its meaning.

Genuine fire doors have specific safety functions and operational requirements. Instructions such as "Fire Door Keep Shut" are there for a reason.

If these instructions appear on doors throughout a building without justification, occupants may become less attentive to them.

In effect, excessive and inappropriate signage risks diluting an important fire safety message.

3. Producing misleading inspection findings

Imagine an inspector arriving at the building and accepting every signed door as a designated fire door.

A checklist-based inspection could result in dozens of doors being recorded as defective because they lack fire-rated components, appropriate seals, suitable hinges or self-closing devices.

But what if many of those doors were never required to provide fire resistance in the first place?

The building owner could receive an inaccurate report and recommendations for substantial unnecessary expenditure.

More seriously, attention could be diverted from genuinely important fire doors that are defective or providing inadequate protection.

4. Creating confusion in fire safety management

Accurate fire door identification is essential for maintaining a reliable fire door register, inspection programme and maintenance schedule.

Where non-designated doors are incorrectly identified, those records can become misleading.

Facilities managers may struggle to distinguish doors that form critical elements of compartmentation or protected escape routes from doors with no specified fire-resisting function.

The result can be poor prioritisation of maintenance and remedial works.

Why must a fire door inspection consider the building?

This incident reinforced something I believe is fundamental to competent fire door inspection.

A fire door cannot be properly assessed without understanding the purpose it is intended to serve within the building.

An inspector can measure the gaps, examine the hinges, inspect the seals, assess the glazing, test the self-closing device and record the condition of the leaf and frame.

All of that is important.

But it is only part of the assessment.

Before making a defensible determination, we should also be asking:

Is a fire-resisting door required at this location?
What fire resistance and smoke control performance are specified?
Is this door protecting an escape route, stairway, compartment boundary or another fire safety feature?
Does the door correspond with the building's fire safety design?
Has the building been altered or its use changed?
Is the surrounding wall or compartment boundary capable of providing the required protection?

A perfectly installed and maintained FD30 doorset may still be inadequate where 60 minutes of fire resistance is required.

Equally, an ordinary door should not automatically be classified as a defective fire door simply because somebody has attached a blue sign to it.

Inspection without an understanding of the building's fire safety strategy risks becoming an exercise in measuring components rather than evaluating protection.

What can the granted Fire Safety Certificate establish?

Where an FSC has been granted, it and its supporting documentation provide an essential reference for understanding the approved fire safety design, including compartmentation, protected escape routes and specified fire-resisting elements.

For a fire door inspection, the certificate alone is not enough. The associated drawings, specifications, fire safety strategy and any relevant conditions or subsequent amendments may be crucial.

There is also an important qualification.

An FSC is not a certificate confirming that the building, as it currently exists, complies with fire safety requirements.

It relates to the design of the building or works, on the basis that they are constructed in accordance with the submitted documentation and any conditions attached to the grant.

Buildings change over time. Internal layouts are altered, rooms are repurposed, services are installed, and fire doors may be replaced or removed.

The granted FSC provides a starting point, but its contents must be considered alongside the actual building and any subsequent approved changes.

The relevant Building Regulations and technical guidance applicable to the building or works must also be considered. It would be incorrect to assume that the latest edition of Technical Guidance Document B automatically applies retrospectively to every existing door.

How does the fire risk assessment connect the door to the building?

This is where the wider fire risk assessment and, where necessary, a formal fire safety assessment become particularly important.

A fire door inspection examines the condition and suitability of individual doorsets within its agreed scope.

A wider assessment considers how those doors contribute to the overall safety of the building.

That includes compartmentation, means of escape, occupancy, evacuation arrangements, fire detection, smoke control, building alterations and fire safety management.

The Department of Housing's Code of Practice for Fire Safety Assessment of Premises and Buildings (2022) specifically identifies FSC application files, certificates of compliance, construction drawings and fire safety records as potentially relevant information when assessing an existing building.

Section 4.4 of the code states that every fire safety assessment must include a survey or inspection of the premises or buildings concerned.

These assessments are complementary, but they are not interchangeable. A routine fire door inspection should not be presented as a comprehensive fire safety assessment unless that wider work has actually been undertaken.

For premises within its scope, section 18(2) of the Fire Services Act 1981, as amended, places ongoing duties on the person having control. These include taking reasonable measures to prevent fire, providing reasonable fire safety measures and appropriate procedures, ensuring they are applied at all times, and ensuring safety so far as reasonably practicable in the event of fire.

That responsibility requires more than attaching signs, commissioning an inspection or retaining an old FSC in a folder.

It requires understanding whether the fire safety measures within the building remain appropriate and effective.

What Should We Learn from This?

For building owners and those commissioning fire door inspections, my message is straightforward.

Before commissioning large-scale remedial works, establish which doors are actually required to provide fire resistance, what performance they must achieve, and whether the current building arrangement reflects the documented fire safety strategy.

Maintain an accurate fire door register supported by appropriate drawings and records.

Where discrepancies arise, have them assessed by a competent person rather than making assumptions based on signage.

A discrepancy between a sign and an old drawing is not, by itself, a reason to remove the sign, closer or door. Management should have a competent person establish the current requirement and record the basis for any change.

And for those of us carrying out fire door inspections, we need to be prepared to challenge what we see.

Sometimes that means requesting documentation, reviewing drawings, asking additional questions or identifying limitations in the information available.

That is not complicating an inspection unnecessarily.

It is exercising professional judgement.

What should a useful inspection report achieve?

The purpose of a fire door inspection should never be simply to produce a list of defective doors.

It should be to provide a technically sound, evidence-based assessment that enables the building owner to understand the condition, suitability and required performance of the doors protecting their building.

In this particular case, the decision to examine the granted FSC documentation changed the context of the entire inspection.

And it highlighted how easily something as simple as indiscriminate fire door signage can create confusion, misplaced confidence and potentially misleading recommendations.

A fire door is not a fire door because somebody has attached a sign to it.

And a competent fire door inspection must establish not only whether a door can do its job, but first, what that job is supposed to be.

That is the difference between inspecting a door in isolation and understanding its role in protecting a building.

Irish Legislative and Technical References

Fire Services Act 1981, section 18(2), as substituted by Licensing of Indoor Events Act 2003, section 29. Section 29(b), substituting section 18(2)(a)-(d).
Building Control Regulations 1997, as amended. Articles 13(2), 15(a), 17(2).
Fire Safety Guide for Building Owners and Operators. Section 6.4, printed pages 36-38 (PDF pages 40-42).
Code of Practice for Fire Safety Assessment of Premises and Buildings. Sections 4.1-4.7, particularly 4.4-4.5; printed page 3 (PDF page 5).
Technical Guidance Document B 2024, Volume 1, January 2026 reprint. Introduction pp.1-2; Appendix B, B1.1 and B2.1-B2.3, pp.304-305.

Frequently asked questions

Does a blue fire door sign prove that the door is fire-resisting?

No. The sign communicates an operational instruction. The required performance and the evidence for the installed door assembly must be considered separately.

Does every door in a building need to be a fire door?

Not automatically. The required locations and performance depend on the building's fire safety design, its current layout and use, and the applicable requirements.

Can an incorrectly placed sign simply be removed?

Management should first have the door's intended function confirmed by a competent person. A suspected signage error is not, by itself, a basis for removing signs, closers or other protective features.

Is the Fire Safety Certificate enough on its own?

No. The associated approved documents, grant conditions and relevant later changes must be considered alongside the actual building. An FSC is not confirmation that the present building has been constructed and maintained in accordance with those documents.

What if the FSC drawings or door records cannot be found?

Record the information gap and obtain competent advice on the scope of further assessment. Missing records do not establish either that a door is adequate or that fire resistance is unnecessary.

Is a fire door inspection the same as a fire risk assessment?

No. The inspection examines individual doorsets within its scope. The wider assessment considers how those doors contribute to building safety. The findings should inform one another.

Discuss an inspection or assessment

Phoenix STS provides fire door inspections, fire risk assessments and fire safety consultancy. Contact Phoenix STS to discuss the scope of an inspection or assessment. For related reading, see John Tiernan's article on how fire risk assessments and fire door inspections work together.

Sharing-image credit: Aaron Manning / West Midlands Fire Service, Fire Door Inspection IMG_5077, CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped and resized; illustrative only. Neither photograph implies endorsement of Phoenix STS.

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Important note

This article provides general information about fire door identification and inspection in Ireland. It is not legal advice or a fire safety assessment, and it does not replace a site-specific assessment by competent persons. Requirements depend on the premises, its use, construction, approvals and subsequent changes. A sign, photograph or historical drawing alone cannot establish the performance required or achieved. Management should obtain competent advice before removing signage, altering a door or reducing an existing fire safety measure.