More than a thousand council front doors in Hackney designed to protect residents for up to 30 minutes from a Grenfell Tower-type blaze could be faulty after failing fire safety tests, the Standard has learned.
The east London council is urgently replacing 1,200 front doors in the borough over fears they do not give the stipulated fire protection to residents.
The so-called FD30S door is supposed to keep smoke and flames at bay for at least 30 minutes, but about 16,000 doors are to be replaced by Hackney in a process which will take three years and cost more than £21 million.
All of Hackney council’s different types of FD30S front door currently in use failed fire resistance tests apart from one.
The discovery means that thousands of homes across London might not have the required level of fire protection.
Council officials are working urgently to replace the composite doors, as well as older doors that were installed before new regulations requiring the FD30S protection — around seven per cent of council stock.
It is understood the manufacturers claimed the doors had passed their own fire safety tests.
However, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said the two door types which “conclusively” failed Hackney’s tests, also failed the Government’s own tests — and have now been removed from the market.
It has also ordered National Trading Standards to “oversee local investigations which are taking place”.
A Ministry of Housing spokesman said: “Nothing is more important than making sure people are safe in their homes. When our testing identified an issue, we immediately took action and the manufacturers were instructed to withdraw the fire door products from the market.
“We are investigating the fire door industry and working with local authorities to make sure products being used meet the appropriate standards.”
Hackney’s timber door brand is also scheduled to be tested by the Government in coming months. The borough will then decide what action to take over the additional 800 timber doors it currently uses, a spokeswoman said.
She added: “Doors we have identified as needing to be replaced will be changed to a door that has exceeded 30 minutes of intense fire under test conditions. We are replacing all the front doors in flats situated in blocks that are 10 storeys and higher.
Kim Wright, group director of neighbourhoods and housing at Hackney Council, said she wanted to stress “that residents are in no immediate danger”. She said: “All our doors provide protection and valuable escape time, and represent only one part of a range of fire safety measures.”
Original Source: www.standard.co.uk
