Case study: fire door safety
14 March 2024
Solution found to hazard of open fire doors and slippery floors.
The fire doors in the main building at Plumstead sidings are wedged open persistently. This undermines their fire protection. Staff have not been closing the doors when they’ve noticed this. There are also no signs warning about slippery floors after mopping, added the reporter.
Rail for London Infrastructure (RfLI) found that the contracted cleaning team were propping open the doors to dry the floor. The cleaners wet mopped the floor and would then prop open the doors to increase air flow and reduce the drying time.
RfLI instructed cleaning staff not to prop open the fire doors under any circumstances. It said the floor cleaning process should be wet mopping followed by dry mopping to reduce leftover moisture and remove slip hazards. RfLI also introduced new signs alerting people to cleaning in progress or the hazard of a drying floor. The reporter passed on their thanks through CIRAS for the action taken.