What is fire door signage?
Fire door signage is the marking on a fire door telling people how it must be left — most commonly Fire door keep shut, or Fire door keep locked where the door protects a store or riser.
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<img src="https://fireoptix.co.uk/glossary/fire-door-signage/diagram.svg" alt="fire door signage — diagram from FireOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://fireoptix.co.uk/glossary/fire-door-signage">What is fire door signage?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://fireoptix.co.uk">FireOptix</a>
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</figure>The sign carries the instruction the door's performance depends on. A fire door achieves nothing while it is open, and the sign is the only part of the assembly that addresses the person who is about to prop it.
Signs are required on both sides of a door where both sides are accessible, which is the part most often half-done. A door signed on the corridor side and blank on the room side is instructing only half the people who use it.
Keep locked is a different instruction from keep shut and is not interchangeable. It applies to doors protecting spaces nobody should be entering casually, and a keep shut sign on a riser cupboard misdescribes what is required.
In practice
A door with 'Fire door keep shut' on both faces.
It is held open on an electromagnetic device that releases on alarm, which is a legitimate arrangement and contradicts the sign.
Signage has to match the door's actual function, and a wrong sign teaches occupants that fire door signage is decorative.
The device is also the thing nobody tests on the weekly alarm test.
What goes wrong in practice
- Signage on one face only, where both faces are accessible.
- Signs painted over or removed during redecoration and never replaced.
- Keep shut used where keep locked is required, or the reverse.