Restaurant and Commercial Kitchen Fire Door Requirements

Which fire safety law covers restaurants and commercial kitchens?

A restaurant, cafe, takeaway or any premises with a commercial kitchen is regulated for fire safety, in England and Wales, by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 — the Fire Safety Order, or RRO. Under Article 3 the responsible person is 'the employer, if the workplace is to any extent under his control', and otherwise the owner, occupier or anyone else with control of the premises. In a small independent restaurant that is usually the operator; in a leased or franchised unit the duty can be split between tenant and landlord for the shared parts.

The Order does not contain a checklist that says 'a restaurant must have these fire doors'. It requires the responsible person to make a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment and to provide and maintain the fire precautions the assessment shows are needed — fire doors among them. Where those doors physically go is fixed by two things working together: the fire risk assessment for the occupied premises, and the building's design under the Building Regulations, either the prescriptive route in Approved Document B or the risk-based route in BS 9999. This is not legal advice: your building's fire risk assessment and fire strategy govern the actual rating and position of every door.

Where are fire doors needed in a restaurant or commercial kitchen?

Fire doors earn their place by doing one of two jobs: protecting the routes people escape by, and holding the compartment lines that stop fire spreading. In catering premises the kitchen dominates the picture, because cooking equipment, hot oils and deep-fat frying are among the most common ignition sources in any building. The priority is to keep a fire that starts on the range from reaching the dining area and the exits before everyone is out — which is why the door between a commercial kitchen and the escape route is so often a fire door, typically FD30 or FD30S and self-closing.

Extraction ductwork is a separate fire path

Grease-laden kitchen extract ductwork is a recognised fire risk in its own right, and it is not solved by a fire door. Where extract or ventilation ductwork passes through a fire-resisting wall or floor it needs appropriate fire-stopping and, where the design calls for it, fire or smoke dampers to maintain compartmentation. Treat this as a compartmentation issue handled alongside — but distinct from — the fire doors, and make sure both are captured together. You can record every fire door on the premises, with its rating and location, using our fire door and doorset schedule.

What fire door rating does a commercial kitchen need?

Most fire doors protecting escape routes in a restaurant are specified as FD30 or FD30S under Approved Document B — the principle being that a door affording access to an escape route should provide at least 30 minutes' fire resistance. The 'S' denotes cold-smoke seals, which limit the passage of smoke as well as flame; it does not add insulation and does not change the resistance in minutes. Where a door protects a stairway, a larger compartment or a higher fire load, the fire strategy may call for FD60 or FD60S instead. Our guides to FD30 vs FD60 and fire door ratings explain how the ratings are set.

Whatever rating is chosen, a fire door only performs as a complete, tested and certified doorset — the leaf, frame, intumescent strips and cold-smoke seals, hinges, self-closer, latch and any glazing all matching the tested specification. Substituting an uncertified leaf, adding an unrated letterplate or over-trimming a leaf can void the rating. The rating on the label is only delivered if the whole assembly is installed and maintained as tested.

Why must kitchen fire doors never be wedged or propped open?

Commercial kitchens run hot, so the temptation to wedge the kitchen door open for airflow and quick service is constant — and it is exactly what defeats the door in a fire. A fire door only holds back flame and smoke when it is closed and latched, so fire doors on escape routes and compartment lines in catering premises are normally fitted with self-closing devices. A door wedged open during service is, for those minutes, simply a hole in a fire-resisting wall directly between the kitchen and the people you are trying to get out.

Where a door genuinely has to stand open for traffic or ventilation, the compliant answer is a controlled hold-open or free-swing device linked to the fire alarm, which releases the door so it self-closes the moment the alarm sounds — never a wedge, a hook or a fire extinguisher used as a doorstop. Each self-closing fire door should also carry a 'Fire door keep shut' sign so staff understand it must not be defeated. Our guide to fire door self-closers covers the acceptable devices and how they are set up.

• Never wedge or prop a kitchen fire door — heat is not a lawful reason to defeat it.
• Use alarm-linked hold-open or free-swing devices where a door must stay open in use.
• Fit and keep 'Fire door keep shut' signage on each self-closing fire door.
• Train staff on why fire doors stay closed and who to report damage or a failing closer to.

How often must restaurant fire doors be checked, and does Regulation 10 apply?

The legal duty is continuous, not periodic. Article 17 of the Fire Safety Order requires the responsible person to keep the premises and any 'facilities, equipment and devices' — fire doors included — 'in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair'. The Order attaches no fixed number to that duty for a restaurant, so the interval is set by the fire risk assessment, based on how the doors are used and how often faults appear. Good practice is a layered routine: frequent, quick operational checks by staff (does it close fully, latch, seals intact, not wedged) plus a more thorough inspection by a competent person — the fire door code of practice BS 8214 points to roughly six-monthly examinations as a baseline, tightened for high-traffic kitchen and entrance doors.

The one thing to get right is that the widely-quoted 3-monthly and 12-monthly intervals are not a restaurant rule. They come from Regulation 10 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, which applies only to a building containing two or more sets of domestic premises and standing over 11 metres in height, in England. A stand-alone restaurant is not domestic premises, so Regulation 10 does not bite on it. It becomes relevant only through mixed use — flats above a restaurant in a qualifying English residential building attract Regulation 10 for their communal and flat entrance doors, while the commercial unit below does not. Our guide to Regulation 10 fire door checks sets out exactly which doors fall inside it, and the fire door inspection checklist covers what a check should record.

Whatever intervals you set, keep dated records of every check and any remedial work — for a food business that evidence sits naturally alongside your other statutory records. For the wider question of when fire doors are legally required at all, see are fire doors a legal requirement.