Posted By Ken Taylor I agree it's worth maintaining the contact - while, like Shaun, I could recount a number of less than ideal experiences of fire officer intervention. It really depends upon who you get to deal with. However, let me also say that this can equally apply to some other professions (H&S not necessarily excluded).

Posted By Neil Tilley A new roller shutter installation is costly, involves daily manual handling and process that can go wrong. In the event of an 'out of hours' fire situation however unlikely, you will have impeded the egress from that exit of the fire fighting services. I think there is far too much for the common human being to make go wrong. Introducing potential hazards is not clever, cost is part of the investment as money is not a bottomless pit. Lucky if you can afford it, but many companies especially now, can't afford it. I would recommend the simplest of changes and build on that if necessary. Surely even if totally replaced with a new standard of fire exit door, it would be no more expensive than a roller shutter... Any door, a fire door can have suitable furnishing that leaves the door inoperable externally, but easily operable internally. If your existing door and frame are not suitably secure replace them for better. Covering them up with another system, a shutter doesn't sound reasonably practicable to me. Fire is a funny thing- in my place 9 years of no fires. So we don't have them(?). But a potential is lurking in the background. Foreseeability is one thing but what would you think if you walked past a fire door that leads to an exit, that had been NAILED shut with mdf batons over the weekend for security reasons? I kid ye not! When you lose perception of risk, people do the strangest of things. Don't bank on how the rest of the premises workforce think. They can be scary - I was taught via NEBOSH training 'trust no-one!'