Posted By Lorraine Shuker I can't find any guidance on what is defined an an emergency door. Does an ordinary door which is used during an evacuation count as an emergency door and therefore have to open in the direction of escape. Most of our external doors open inwards and some on stairwells open inwards (if you think of the stairwell as being "out"). What do you think?

Posted By Thomas Kennedy Lorraine I think you're struggling here simply through your' use of terminology. For "emergency door" you really mean "fire door". You can get a definition for this under teh Building Regs 2000. Get a copy of the HSE guide, Fire Safety - An Employers Guide. It covers most things you need to know.

Posted By Charles Mcilwhan Lorraine Obviously by the heading you have picked up on the fact that the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations section 5(2) states "emergency doors" shall open in the direction of travel. By wording the regulations in this fashion it effectively brings in any door that is or may be part of an escape route, not just fire doors. The preamble to that paragraph identifies that the requirement must be complied with where necessary. There are situations where doors must open out(eg rooms with high fire risks or rooms with more than 60 people.) It may be acceptable for doors on escape routes to open inwards however taking into consideration the type of property, fire hazards, use of the building etc etc, as part of the Fire Risk assessment, would determine whether this would be acceptable. It is anticipated that guidance documents will be issued in the new year to support the new Fire Safety Order due next year which will extend the Risk Assessment based approach to fire safety. Charles