fire doors in buildings and disabled not being able to open them

[tweenyb]

Hi

If a block of flats has fire doors, which most of them do now, how does a disabled person stand legally with having to get in and out of the flat if they cannot actually open the door due to the weight /stiffness of the fire door?

are there any laws on fired doors and the disabled?

many thanks

[another-view]

If someone is so disabled that they can't even open a fire door, they should have a 24 hour carer.

[daffy654]

What a ridiculous statement to make another-view.
I have trouble opening fire doors due to damaged nerves in my chest wall which cause excruciating pain when I try and lift or push anything heavy..........I do not need a 24hr carer at all.
I have no idea about the legal side of things though tweenyb.

[another-view]

What would you do if trapped in a fire by yourself, Daffy and the only exit was a fire door?

[daffy654]

I would either try and get out of a window if there was one I suppose,or I would have to wait for help. It still doesn't mean I need a 24hr carer though.

[another-view]

You would wait for help????? Sounds toasty to me.

[bigmamma]

Our local shop has a very heavy door , as do some in the shopping centre , and Barclays Bank . Before I needed a whelchair I used a stick , and just couldn't open the doors like that .

[another-view]

Hopefully, someone would be in the bank to assist you, should there be a fire bigmamma

[bigmamma]

Thank you another-view , there has fortunately always been someone there to help me , and at the moment I have a carer with me to open the doors for my wheelchair xx

[bednobs]

i guess the whole point of fire doors is that they give you a window of time to be protected from being toasted while help arrives

[bednobs]

and i would also think that if you were unable to get in and out of your wn flat on a daily basis, it could be time to move

[tweenyb]

the problem is i have a bad back and i am unable to use my own front door but we have a great patio door that i can use and lock from the outside, however the owner of the property is selling up and we need to move

we are looking to buy (cant afford this place) but just about everywhere has fire doors in a communal hallway or stairs and i was wondering if there were any legalities in this as if there is a fire i would be toast.

it is so hard to find a property that is disabled friendly in my area and i am sure im not the only one with this problem

[colin6789]

My mother is in a Council owned sheltered accomodation and all the corridor fire doors are held open on arms that shut the doors when the fire alarms go off, so in normal operation there is not a problem. If the fire alarms go off somebody else would most probable be there to let you though and you only need to go though one or two to get to an exit.