Fire door advice for tenants

What are Fire Doors?

Fire doors are designed to keep you and other tenants safe.

Fire doors close behind you to create a barrier from fire and toxic smoke, preventing them from travelling around a building.

This helps to contain the fire within an area, allowing for clear evacuation and safe access for the emergency services. They’re specifically designed to withstand fire for up to 30 minutes.

In a block of flats, you’ll find fire and smoke doors on the stairwells, corridors, and on the front doors of flats. You’ll also see them protecting areas where there’s a risk of fire, such as bin storage rooms or mains electricity service cupboards.

If your front door leads into a communal area in your building, it has to be a fire door. Sometimes you’ll find them inside flats, too, but this depends on an individual flat’s specific design and layout.

Watch our short film on fire doors:

If you'd prefer, you can scroll down to the 'Download our Fire Door Advice leaflet (for all tenants living in flats)' section to download a PDF leaflet that covers the same topics as this film.

How often will Bolton at Home check the Fire Doors in my building, and what will you check?

Here's how often we'll check the Fire Doors in your building:

For high rise buildings, 18 metres or above, or at least seven stories in height:

We'll check flat entrance fire doors annually.
We'll check communal fire doors, such as bin chute rooms, storage cupboards, cross corridor/landing doors quarterly.

For medium rise buildings, 11 metres to 17.9 metres in height, or at five to six stories in height:

We'll check flat entrance fire doors annually.
We'll check communal fire doors, such as bin chute rooms, storage cupboards, cross corridor/landing doors quarterly.

For low rise buildings, two to four stories in height with shared communal areas:

While we've no set intervals to inspect these buildings, we'll still check them regularly - including during visits for other purposes. If you think something's wrong, please call us on 01204 328000 to report any suspected faults to us.

What we're looking for when we inspect Fire Doors:

Any damage to the door's glazing or air transfer grille.
The door closer shuts the door.
The door closes correctly around the whole frame.
Any gaps around the door frame, seals, and hinges.
No visible damage.

Access for Fire Door inspections:

For your health and safety, it’s essential to allow access for Fire Door inspections.

We’ll contact you by letter before inspections take place. If you’re not at home when we call, we’ll leave a calling card, with contact numbers for you to arrange a convenient time for the inspection.

By not allowing access for essential health and safety inspections, you may be in breach of your tenancy and, more importantly, placing your safety and your neighbours’ safety at risk.

Please tell us if you think there's an issue with any of the Fire Doors in your building:

If you need help checking your fire doors, or think you might have spotted an issue, please email us using: buildingsafety@boltonathome.org.uk or call us on 01204 328000.

Download our Fire Door Advice leaflet (for all tenants living in flats)

Thumbnail image showing the cover of our Fire Door Advice leaflet.

Download our fire door Advice leaflet (for all tenants living in flats):

This leaflet contains handy information on what fire doors are, why they're important, how/when we’ll inspect them, and how you can regularly check the ones in your home/building will do their job in the event of a fire.

Tap here to download our Fire Door Advice leaflet [pdf] 1020KB

Our Fire Door Advice leaflet covers:

What fire doors are
Why we provide fire doors
When your front door needs to be a fire door
How to check your fire door is safe and will do its job in the event of a fire
Why you should never alter your fire door
When we'll inspect your fire doors and what we'll check

Here are the five steps you should follow to make sure your fire doors are safe:

Do you know the five steps to check the fire doors in your building would properly protect you and yours in the event of a fire? And would you know how to report any issues to us? It’s crucial that you let us know if there are any.

If you’re unsure or need a refresher- don’t worry. Just swipe through the images below to see our five-step guide to checking fire doors.

Swipe or scroll left/right below to see our five steps to make sure your fire doors are safe:

Header image reading: 'Certification' with a graphic showing a fire door certification label.

Step 1. Certification:

Look for a label or plug on top (or occasionally on the side) of the door. Without a certification mark, you cannot be sure this really is a fire door.

How to check: use a mirror or the selfie function on your phone's camera.