Fire doors and escape doors

• Fire-resisting doors form part of a building’s passive fire protection; they prevent the spread of fire (and, in many cases, smoke), including protecting escape routes.  Fire doors must be closed in the event of fire, being either self-closing or kept locked shut.
• Escape doors provide safe egress from a building in the event of fire or other emergency. They are not necessarily fire-resisting and, unless they are, should not be referred to as “fire doors”.  Escape doors must be easily openable by persons escaping from the building. 
• Planned maintenance is essential to the continued performance of both fire doors and escape doors.

In  2012 dhf and GAI (Guild of Architectural Ironmongers) produced a document entitled Code of Practice for Fire & Escape Doors.  This document is still relevant today and can be found at www.firecode.org.uk