Fire doors are designed to prevent a fire from spreading throughout a building. They should also assist individuals with a straightforward access in or out of the building through a safe route. The law requires fire doors to be installed in the interior of your building, and they must be able to stand the heat for a regulation period. For peace of mind and to ensure you meet the regulations, you must have regular fire door testing in Minnesota.
How Do Fire Doors Work?
Fire doors are often made of solid wood and sometimes appear with a glass window so individuals can see through to the other side, which may be very useful in the event of a fire breaking out in your building. The glass will also be a fire resisting glass if it is in the focus of a regulated fire door.
The door will be surrounded by a seal which can expand at high temperature, which seals the gaps between the door and the frame, preventing a fire or smoke from breaking through.
Importantly, fire door testing in Minnesota will prove that fire doors work effectively with a self-closing mechanism. This is required so that they will close automatically and must never be propped open so that they can be effective if a fire breaks out in your property.
Although you will have named responsible individuals who must ensure that the fire door testing in Minnesota is carried out monthly and that the doors are never propped open so are always prepared for a fire, everyone within a building must take on a higher element of responsibility to check that these doors are always closed and never left open to allow fire to break through.
It is also important that fire doors are never obstructed from either side so that in the event of an emergency they can become the escape route for all the individuals within a property.
Where fire doors are installed correctly and tested regularly, they may save lives of your employees, visitors or others.