FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS > Fire related queries from non specialists

Fire Doors - Intumescent strips

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numpty:
Can someone please explain how hard it it to open a door where the intumescent strip has expanded to seal the door? Reason I ask, is it acceptable to have a door on a fire escape that has an intumescent strip, as it could prevent someone from opening it.
Thinking of a corridor separating door or a door in a fire wall which is also on the escape route.

Slash hose:
If the intumescent strip has expanded due to heat you wouldn?t want to open the door! The conditions on the other side would be untenable! Not that you?d be able to get near to it as there would still be smoke on the non-fire side and the door handle would probe too hot up touch.

numpty:
You might be a firefighter wanting to enter a room or get down the corridor.
If the people in the building evacuate as soon as the alarm goes off, Why need intumescent strips? It cannot be enforced by fire because it?s life risks and everyone would be out the building.
It might stop a fire damaging another area but that?s for insurance not life protection.

Messy:
Numpty - Intumescent seals  can most certainly be a life safety control measure in bulldogs small and large

Examples

A single staircase 4 storey hotel with bedrooms or other rooms opening onto the stairs. It may be necessary to ensure the doors onto the staircase (which may be escape doors from the bedrooms) are resilient and hold back fire a sufficient time for those sleeping above to be woken and start their evacuation past the room which is alight

A hospital with progressive horizontal evacuation or an office block with phased evacuation. Both examples will require relevant persons to stay in the building after the fire has been discovered . Ensuring fire compartments are tight is an essential part of this strategy

Then there is basement fires, plant rooms at other high risk locations on or near to an escape route...... etc

So to assume seals are just for building protection is rather a simplistic viewpoint

numpty:
Messy - I fully understand that they are simply not for building protection and value the importance of protecting the escape route. My question was how tight would they hold a door once the strip has activated, I have seen these strips on cross corridor fire doors, which got me thinking how would someone open one of they needed to pass it, this would include fire fighters that might enter the building.

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