Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy and in support of this year’s Fire Door Safety Week (25 September – 1 October 2017), a new free online training tool has been launched to boost the basic understanding of fire doors needed by those with responsibilities for fire safety.
The course has been developed by the Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS), Europe's first competency framework for fire door inspectors. It is delivered virtually through an online interactive learning portal and is open to anyone who is responsible for specifying, selling, installing or maintaining fire doors and their components.
The service builds on the highly popular half-day ‘Bite size fire door training course’ launched earlier this year in response to the increasing demand for training to increase knowledge about the legal and practical issues relating to fire doors. It also provides an introduction to the FDIS Diploma in Fire Doors.
Kevin Hulin, FDIS manager, says: "The lack of basic knowledge about fire doors is a real challenge to all parts of the industry, and we felt this was something simple that we could do to help.
“There are now 30 inspectors operating throughout the UK accredited through the FDIS process and we have had more than 1,100 people sign up to study the diploma.
"This new course is an introduction to the diploma, tailored for the generalist who needs to know the basics and also needs to be able to recognise when to bring in an expert. I hope it will also encourage them to continue their studies further, and support the challenge laid down by the Fire Door Safety Week team to make our building stock that bit safer.”
The free online training tool is available at http://trial.fdis.co.uk.
FDIS is Europe's first fire door inspection scheme. It was launched in 2012 as a joint venture between the BWF-Certifire Scheme and the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers. It aims to transform people's knowledge about how and why fire doors work and the potential dangers of getting it wrong.
FDIS provides an online learning centre leading to a Diploma in Fire Doors, and a route for diploma holders to become Certificated Fire Door Inspectors through independent assessment by Exova Warringtonfire.
