Warehouse & Industrial Fire Door Requirements (UK)

Last reviewed: 2026-07-12 · Checked against the primary sources cited below · Editorial policy

In short

Warehouses and industrial units in England and Wales are governed by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, not the residential Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. Fire doors protect escape routes and hold compartment lines: because compartments are large and fire loads high, compartment-wall doorsets are often FD60(S), with FD30(S) to offices, mezzanines and plant. Large goods openings need tested fire shutters or sliding fire doorsets. Where fire doors are needed, and how often they are checked, is set by the fire risk assessment and Approved Document B.

Key facts

Warehouses and industrial units in England and Wales are covered by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The responsible person (usually the employer, occupier or whoever controls the premises) must keep fire doors maintained under Article 17.
There is no warehouse-specific statutory check interval. The 3-monthly and 12-monthly figures come from Regulation 10 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, which applies only to English residential buildings over 11 metres, not to industrial premises. Frequency is set by the fire risk assessment.
Because industrial compartments are large and fire loads high, doorsets in compartment walls are frequently FD60(S), while offices, mezzanines and plant rooms within the envelope are typically FD30(S). The exact rating is set by the fire strategy and Approved Document B / BS 9999.
An FD60 fire door provides 60 minutes of integrity (broadly E60 under BS EN 13501-2). That is not the same as an insulating EI60 element, and the 'S' suffix means cold-smoke seals, not insulation.
Large goods and vehicle openings in fire-resisting compartment walls are closed by tested fire shutters or sliding fire doorsets, not ordinary hinged doors, usually held open on devices that release and close the opening automatically on the fire alarm.
Fire doors on escape routes and compartment lines must be self-closing and kept shut. Wedging a warehouse fire door open defeats it and is a common enforcement failing.

Do warehouses and industrial units legally need fire doors?

A warehouse, factory or industrial unit in England and Wales is regulated for fire safety by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, usually shortened to the Fire Safety Order. Under Article 3 the responsible person in a workplace is the employer, so far as the workplace is under their control, and otherwise the owner, occupier or whoever else controls the premises, such as a managing agent or facilities manager. The Order does not contain a checklist that says an industrial unit must have a set number of fire doors.

Instead it requires the responsible person to make a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment and to provide and maintain the general fire precautions that assessment shows are needed. Fire doors are one of those precautions. What actually determines where they go is the fire risk assessment for the occupied building working alongside the building's original design under the Building Regulations, either the prescriptive route in Approved Document B or the risk-based route in BS 9999. For the wider question of when fire doors are legally required, see are fire doors a legal requirement.

It also matters that an industrial building is not domestic premises, so the fixed statutory door-check intervals in the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 do not apply to it, however large the building is. Those intervals are a residential, England-only regime, covered in our guide to Regulation 10 fire door checks.

Where are fire doors needed in a warehouse or industrial unit?

Fire doors earn their place by doing one of two jobs: protecting the routes people use to escape, and holding the compartment lines that stop a fire spreading through a large building. Industrial layouts have fewer internal doors than an office, but the ones they do have tend to be high-value: openings in compartment walls, doors protecting the office and welfare block, and doors to the plant that services the site. Build a door-by-door record with our fire door and doorset schedule so nothing is missed.

Indicative fire door locations in an industrial building; the fire strategy and Approved Document B set the actual ratings.
Location in a warehouse / industrial unit	Why a fire door is needed	Typical rating (set by the fire strategy)
Personnel door through a compartment wall	Maintain compartmentation between large fire compartments	Often FD60(S) where the wall gives 60 minutes
Goods or vehicle opening in a compartment wall	Close the opening on a fire so the wall keeps working	Tested fire shutter or sliding fire doorset
Internal offices, welfare and mezzanine areas	Separate occupied, higher life-risk areas from the store	Typically FD30(S)
Protected escape routes, stairs and final exit lobbies	Keep the means of escape usable in a fire	FD30(S) or FD60(S) per design
Plant, boiler, sprinkler pump and electrical intake rooms	Contain higher-risk services and ignition sources	FD30(S) / FD60(S) per fire risk assessment
Battery-charging bays and hazardous or flammable stores	Separate concentrated fire load and ignition risk	Per fire risk assessment

Compartment walls and large openings

The defining feature of warehouse fire safety is compartmentation. Approved Document B sets maximum compartment sizes for industrial and storage buildings, and larger compartments rely on measures such as automatic sprinklers to be accepted. Every opening in a compartment wall, whether a personnel door, a goods opening or a service penetration, has to be protected so the wall keeps performing. Hinged personnel openings use fire doorsets; large goods and vehicle openings use tested fire shutters or sliding fire doorsets, covered below.

What fire rating do warehouse fire doors need, FD30 or FD60?

There is no single answer, because a fire door is specified to match the wall it sits in. Match the door's rating to the fire resistance required of that wall by the fire strategy and Approved Document B. In practice, doors protecting internal offices, mezzanines and standard escape routes are commonly FD30(S), while doorsets in compartment walls dividing large storage areas are frequently FD60(S), reflecting the higher fire loads and longer resistance those walls provide. Our guide to FD30 vs FD60 works through when each is used.

A subtle but important point for compartment walls: the wall itself is usually required to provide insulation as well as integrity (an EI or REI rating), yet the fire door within it is specified on its integrity performance, its FD/E rating in minutes. That is accepted because the door area is limited and its position controlled, so the radiant heat through it can be managed. The distinction between integrity and insulation is set out in our fire door ratings explained guide. Whatever the rating, the building's fire strategy and fire risk assessment govern the actual specification for any given door, not a rule of thumb.

Do sliding, roller shutter and large openings count as fire doors?

Yes, when they sit in a fire-resisting wall. Where a large goods or vehicle opening pierces a compartment wall, it must be closed by a tested, certificated fire-resisting assembly, a fire shutter or a sliding fire doorset, not an ordinary security shutter. These assemblies are usually held open by magnetic or fusible-link hold-open devices during normal operation and release to close the opening automatically on the fire alarm or on detecting heat, so the compartment line is restored when it matters.

Specify the shutter or sliding doorset to the fire resistance required of the wall, tested to the relevant standard and third-party certificated as an assembly.
Keep the closing path clear: pallets, stock or vehicles left in the opening stop the assembly closing and defeat the compartment.
Maintain the release and closing mechanism as diligently as the leaf itself; a shutter that will not drop provides no protection.
Do not substitute or modify hardware; a fire shutter only performs as the certificated, complete assembly it was tested as.

Personnel doors within or beside these large openings are conventional self-closing fire doorsets and must not be wedged or propped. For how these wide and moving assemblies work and are specified, see our guide to double and sliding fire doors and to fire door self-closers.

How often must warehouse fire doors be checked, and who is responsible?

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, subject to a suitable system of maintenance and maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair. The Order attaches no fixed number to that duty for industrial premises. The interval is set by the fire risk assessment, chosen on how the doors are used and how often faults appear. Guidance on wider workplace duties is set out in fire safety in the workplace.

An indicative industrial schedule; set the actual intervals in the fire risk assessment.
Check	Who	Typical good-practice frequency
Quick operational check (closes fully, latches, seals intact, not wedged or blocked)	Staff / facilities	Weekly to monthly, per the fire risk assessment
Detailed fire door inspection (gaps, hardware, glazing, seals, certification)	Competent inspector	Around 6-monthly baseline; more often on high-traffic doors
Fire shutter and sliding fire door drop / release test	Competent person	Per manufacturer and fire risk assessment
Compartmentation and structural fire protection review	Competent person	At least annually

High-traffic openings on a busy warehouse, main routes for forklifts and pallet movement, or doors held by heavy self-closers, justify shorter intervals than a rarely-used riser or plant room. All of these frequencies are good practice, not statute: none is a legal minimum for industrial premises in the way Regulation 10's intervals are for tall English residential blocks. Whatever intervals you set, keep dated records of each check and any remedial work; our fire door inspection guide and inspection checklist tool set out what a competent inspection covers.

Frequently asked questions

Do warehouses need fire doors by law?

Effectively yes, wherever the fire risk assessment or the building's design under Approved Document B or BS 9999 shows they are needed to protect escape routes or compartment walls. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 does not list fire doors by name, but it requires the responsible person to provide and maintain the fire precautions the assessment identifies, which almost always includes fire doors.

Should warehouse compartment fire doors be FD30 or FD60?

The rating follows the fire resistance required of the wall the door sits in. Because industrial compartments are large and fire loads high, compartment-wall doorsets are frequently FD60(S), while offices, mezzanines and plant rooms are often FD30(S). An FD60 door gives 60 minutes of integrity, broadly E60, which is not the same as an insulating EI60 element. The fire strategy and Approved Document B set the specification.

Do sliding doors and roller shutters need to be fire rated?

Where a large goods or vehicle opening pierces a fire-resisting wall, it must be closed by a tested, certificated fire-resisting assembly, a fire shutter or a sliding fire doorset, not an ordinary shutter. These are usually held open by devices that release and close the opening automatically on the fire alarm. Keep the closing path clear and maintain the release mechanism. See our guide to double and sliding fire doors.

How often must warehouse fire doors be inspected?

There is no fixed statutory interval for industrial premises. Frequency is set by the fire risk assessment under Article 17 of the Fire Safety Order. Good practice combines frequent operational checks by staff with a more detailed inspection by a competent person, typically around every six months and more often on high-traffic doors. The 3-monthly Regulation 10 interval applies only to English residential buildings over 11 metres.

Sources