Hi all I am having difficulty in getting accross to employees at my place of work the need to keep fire doors closed. The building is on 2 floors (i'm upstairs) the main downstairs office is open planned and is home to 2 departments. Although 2 senior managers are based within the downstairs office; the main exit fire door is almost always wedged open with a wooden excavation wedge. Other than the obvious; the fire door also acts as security measure as one requires a key fob to access from the exterior; I have; on many occasions walked into the office to find it completely deserted! So; if a fire were to start it would not be contained as well as the risk of intrusion; theft; vandalism etc. I have sent polite email notification of this problem to all staff in the past. Also; the office has air conditioning installed. Has anyone any ideas on how I can get the message accross of the importance of leaving fire doors closed in a way that will ensure eveyone takes note but at the same time politely so that I don't rub people up the wrong way (senior managers) Any response will be welcome however obvious it may seem. Many thanks

Sorry; i should have stated that the door in question; although the main exit out of the office; actually opens into a small corridor with a shower/changing room to the left and then through another door leading directly outside.

If it is indeed a fire door tell all in the office that someone is breaking the law (RRFSO 2005). Give them the legal aspect above Then the economic aspect a fire will cause loss of income. Then the moral aspect What if one of the potential incident caused deaths of colleagues or family? If all else fails try the responsible person and involve them in the actions required. SBH

SBH - Quoting the law as you suggest is unlikely to have much effect. The same goes for your other suggestions. The employees will very probably continue to think that the likelihood of a fire and adverse consequences (impact on organisation, threat to jobs, deaths of individuals, etc) are remote, hence their ongoing sloppiness regarding the door. Having a screech alarm as suggested by tabs would be much more effective. markdm - Is the door fitted with a self-closing device? If not, why not have one fitted - not least to make the door effective as a security feature. Also, if people are repeatedly wedging the door open, why are they doing so? Could there be a persistent fault with the air conditioning system for example? Also, from what you describe, is the door actually needed? (Some of us, myself included, should have been more logical and asked this question earlier!) Seek a site discussion with a fire expert. It may well be feasible to remove the door involved if a self-closer can be fitted (if necessary) to the shower/changing room door. As regards the security fob system, this could be moved to the final exit door and reinforced by the fitting of a self-closer if it doesn't already have one. Also, in due course, please could you share with the rest of us on the forum how the problem is eventually tackled? It would be useful to others dealing with similar situations.

The outer door is accessable to all employees wishing to use the shower/locker rooms; the fire door (self closing)is supposed to be kept shut to stop others from waltzing in. I certainly will let all in the groups know how i get on. Thanks

achrn - Fair point, backed up by your example of successful intervention regarding fire doors. My comment about the success or otherwise of quoting the law stems from my stance that quoting the law at people, especially in depth during training sessions, tends to be counter-productive to the cause of OS&H. However, that's just my opinion based on experience. It's up to forum users to read postings and responses and choose what advice they think might be appropriate and could work for them. markdm - From what you write about the inner door, it sounds more like a security door than a fire door. However, it's not much use as a security door if the building's occupants keep wedging it open for some reason. Perhaps a few of them keep forgetting their fob devices when they go out of the door. Anyhow, good luck with trying to resolve the matter.

Farrell - Only you can answer your opening question at #12 ! However, it seems from your reference to "a bomb on someone's desk" (i.e. one item on one desk) that you've misread or misunderstood my response at #4 which suggested similar items on everyone's desks with the intention of provoking discussion and hopefully action by the building's occupants. Try reading the whole response again and put the bit you've quoted in its proper context. As for your concluding question, the very obvious answer to it is no. Most forum users probably deduced this from my opening comment that it was "a quick off-the-cuff suggestion". The topic raised a good varied mix of responses, including my query about whether the issue is really about fire or security, plus an offer by markdm to share with this forum how the matter is resolved in due course. Have a nice weekend.