About

Formed in 2024 to address ongoing concerns with fire door compliance and general lack of understanding or inconsistent application of professional practice across the industry.

Fire doors are an integral part of a building’s fire protection design by creating compartments. A form of passive fire protection that is designed to contain the spread of fire (i.e. fire rated walls, ceilings and incorporated penetrations).

Fire doors are complex when compared to other passive products. Operating as a door for access and egress, for access when required by the fire services and to provide compartmentation in the event of a fire.

This unique operating environment also brings along multiple performance requirements, aesthetics and modes of operation. Multiple stake holders and suppliers are involved in the supply chain for a finished product. This inherently creates conditions that are confusing leading to potentially non-compliant door-sets. Combined with a range of human behaviours that could make the doors not perform. Education and transparency is paramount in this industry.

Fire door performance is of concern globally, Australia is not alone in this matter.

The requirement for fire doors to be supported by test reports and/or assessment reports for variations and aligning this to what the building design fraternity wants in a building creates complications in validating what is ordered and what is supported with the required evidence of suitability, what is supplied and what is certified.

AS 1905.1-2015 was updated to require a detailed fire door schedule to be provided at door certification stage. It is now almost 7 years since the adoption of this standard by the National Construction Code (2016), and it would be expected that this is now standard practice in all buildings constructed since the referencing of that standard.

The change in NCC 2022 requiring evidence of suitability reports to reflect AS 1530.4 – 2014 has also resulted in many designs, approvals and variations to be retired or withdrawn due to lack of supporting data to the current fire test standard. Maintaining buildings constructed to prior versions of the NCC remains a question.

FDA AUSTRALIA’s purpose is to ensure that communities can trust in the required performance of fire, acoustic and smoke doors.