Building security in the UK is a constant area of concern for companies. Often the remit of facilities or operations managers, the issue of securing building entrances and exits also has underlying health and safety elements to it.
On the surface, the solution may sound straightforward: invest in robust industrial doors, heavy-duty deadbolts, premium-grade locking systems, and reliable alarms, mitigating any risk to your infrastructure, stored goods, and people working on the ground, allowing them to come and go with complete confidence.
However, there is such a thing as adding too much reinforcement. The very features that make an entryway secure from external threats and attack methods can, under certain conditions, make it profoundly trickier to escape from inside. Should there be a fire or incident that warrants an immediate exit, the entranceway(s) must be able to allow for a quick escape.
Getting this balance right involves selecting a door with the right security and fire ratings, certainly, but alongside the creation of an infrastructure that cannot pose other safety or protection risks to those it’s designed to safeguard.
Door security: A problem unto itself
In high traffic environments like logistics centres, transport hubs, and fulfilment centres, entrances and exits are far from arbitrary features of a premises; they are vital access points that must be inherently safe, functional and non-disruptive, under constant use.
Choosing the correctly safety-rated door is crucial in these environments. Industry specialists such as Maltaward, note such zone security often relies on the installation of steel security doors, due to their inherent robustness. By selecting doors graded against specific UK and European standards, such as STS202 and LPS1175, facilities have the assurance of verified stability against attacks of varying intensity.
Such doors make excellent additions to any commercial or industrial facility, particularly if it’s susceptible to external threats. But these ratings only measure one aspect; they do not necessarily determine how a door performs in an emergency.
For example, a door that meets LPS1175 criteria (for clarity: forced entry resistance and not egress or usability), may be resilient to burglary attempts but could be cumbersome and difficult to open from the inside, particularly in a pressured, emergency situation. Additional measures like adding padlocks, secondary bolts or locks as an afterthought, may add further challenges.
This is where appropriate, proactive safety planning must address entrances and exits – so that they don’t obstruct people if they need to evacuate the premises suddenly, or fail to work as intended.
Risks of padlocking fire doors
This situation is a prime illustration of where an already pressing situation could be dramatically worsened, albeit with a product designed to improve safety. Padlocking fire doors may make sense if the premises are to remain uninhabited for an extended period. However, as Fire Door Systems explain, where the building is occupied it will likely be in breach of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
This is sound logic: management wants to ensure thefts, access and unauthorised usage are controlled, but there remains the potential for a fatality if somebody cannot safely and easily remove themselves from the risks of a fire.
The Health and Safety Executive has detailed accidents where workers were unable to evacuate quickly due to obstructed exits or passageways. In incidents such as fire or gas leaks, every second counts. A door that requires a physical key to open, or one where the padlock key is inaccessible, creates a far higher risk. Under the fire safety regulations, all final exit doors must be capable of being opened immediately, and without the use of a key.
Integration, not addition
Most safety failures of entranceways don’t point to the quality of the door itself but rather the absence of integration between the door and the building’s existing security and safety systems. High-security doors with electronic open/close mechanisms, for instance, should ideally connect with the building’s fire alarm system so that confirmed alarm sounds automatically release locks and overrides other commands. Governing the interface between fire alarm systems and door release mechanisms is expected under the code of practice BS 7273-4.
Where access control is linked to security alarm systems but not fire alarms, there is an immediate risk factor. Intrusion alarms may trigger lockdown procedures, keeping occupants inside, potentially as a fire or gas incident develops. This warrants complete and thorough testing in combination to ensure controls and measures are correct and compliant.
Practical steps for safety professionals
For health and safety professionals conducting site-wide risk assessments, entranceways must be firmly scrutinised. As a guide:
- Verify that all fire exit doors are capable of immediate, unobstructed egress when the premises are occupied.
- Ensure that no padlocks or secondary locks are present that would delay or complicate evacuation.
- Document this verification and confirm it with the responsible person(s) under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order.
- Establish whether the access control system(s) integrates with the fire alarm; if they are independently operated, commission tests of the release mechanism when the alarm is sounded.
- Review the maintenance schedules for all automated entranceways, if relevant. This should include tests for sensor calibration, lock actuation, and emergency releases.
- Implement training programmes to address knowledge gaps in proper evacuation and safety etiquette.
- Confirm the placement of clear fire exit signage and floor markings to ensure passages to the exit are fully understood and visible.
- Ensure any security upgrades, be they for locks, doors, or additional access control layers, are reviewed against the existing fire safety policy and strategy.
Establish a conducive system, not a product
The entranceway of any premises carries a complex set of requirements. If ticking all the right boxes, it will deter intrusion, manage access, support emergency evacuation, and present a professional, accessible face to all who are authorised. If not, it creates a single point of failure that any one incident can expose at rapid pace.
Security and safety professionals who treat entranceway etiquette as a key product decision and one with lasting implications, rather than simple aesthetic design choices, will always be one audit or incident away from an investigation or gap that they had no idea existed.
About the Author:
David leads the content delivery team at HSE Network and handles the day to day management of advertorial and editorial content campaigns. David has experience in safety content creation across written and podcast-based mediums and has been working with HSE Network for over 5 years.
