Why is it required for Fire Doors to be Inspected Annually?
In 2007, a new edition of the NFPA 80 Standard for Fire doors And Other Opening Protective was issued. A number of incidents had occurred where the loss of life was determined to have been caused by either inappropriately installed hardware, hardware that had not been maintained to operational standards, or where the hardware was tampered with to provide little or no protection to the lives of building occupants. The standard has always required that fire doors be maintained in good working condition. Since building owners are ultimately responsible for the maintenance and proper function of their structures, the NFPA, in concert with the AHJ community and other interested parties, decided it was time for individual property owners to inspect their fire door assemblies annually. The way this was accomplished was the revision of the NFPA 80 Standard, 2007, as a guideline to be used by The AHJ community to ensure that certain standards were met. On average it takes around three years for any jurisdiction to adopt and write into code from an NFPA Standard. So it was not until 2010 that jurisdictions started to make these standards part of their code.
What we have found as of 2023 was that even with this standard being adopted by most if not all jurisdictions, the law is still not being aggressively enforced. There are select communities that are starting enforcement, but still not enough. We as a community must insist that Fire marshals and other AHJ’s start enforcing these Codes and Standards. We feel that the AHJ’s jst need to start asking “Eight Simple Words” – Where – is – your – Inspection – Testing – Maintenance – Log – Book, those 8 words would simplify their job without costing them any additional money. AHJ’s already ask building management for other ITM Logs this would just be another one for them to review. This would greatly improve the buildings code compliance in their jurisdictions.
NFPA 80 Chapter 5.2.3.1 States that Functional testing of fire door assemblies shall be performed by individuals with knowledge and understanding of the operating components of the type of door being subject to testing.
