Fire door closers have played a part in ensuring fire compliance at Ard Cuan Residential Home in Northern Ireland, doing away with the need to hard wire in a system to the building. The care home, in Portaferry, required the door closers to be installed to ease access while protecting elderly residents in the event of a fire.
Billy McClintock, joint owner of the home had a total of 12 Agrippa fire door closers installed into the care home, where 17 residents are living.
He said: “Having just installed a new fire alarm system we were informed by our fire engineer that we had to install door closers on every bedroom door. It looked as though we would have to install magnetic closers which would have necessitated additional wiring for each closer. It was then I came across the Agrippa closer which operates by battery, acoustically and also allows the door to be held open fully or at any point between fully open and closed. They were easy to install and we were able to program them ourselves.
“I would have no hesitation in recommending the Agrippa fire door closer. I would also say we found the staff at Geofire very helpful and understanding.”
The manufacturers Geofire say that the Agrippa fire door closer has been particularly successful within the care home industry due to the device’s installwith minimal disruption it’s claimed. Fire door activation devices have been recently recommended by the Care Quality Commission, and are installed to internal fire doors so that in the event of a fire, the spread of smoke and fire is contained rather than spreading throughout the building.
The door closer is part of a range of Agrippa products that ‘listen and learn’ the sound of a building’s specific fire alarm, reducing the firm says false activations. The range also includes an acoustic door holder and pillow alarm.
The Agrippa range is among electromagnetic fire door products designed and manufactured in the UK by British manufacturer Geofire. Visit www.geofire.co.uk.
