Fire Door Signs

Fire Exit Door Signs: Buying Guide

Fire doors come in many shapes and sizes and with a variety of operating mechanisms, such as panic bolts or panic latches. Therefore, it is important to clearly specify their use with universally recognised signage. By their very nature many fire doors are also not easily recognisable as they are kept closed and are quite anonymous in their appearance. Because they are not used regularly they can be easily overlooked unless they are clearly labelled as fire exits.

It is therefore very important that clear fire door signage is used to draw attention in emergency situations to the location of fire doors and their operating mechanisms to ensure a smooth and safe evacuation from a building.

Fire Door Signage Requirements

Using clear and easily recognised fire door signs goes some way in fulfilling the mandatory requirements of fire safety regulations relating to places of work and public spaces. According to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, all emergency routes and exits must be indicated by signs. Emergency routes and exits requiring illumination must be provided with emergency lighting of adequate intensity in the case of failure of their normal lighting.

Depending on the type of exits you have on your premises, you may also need to provide instructions on how to operate the door, or indicate that a door opens automatically.

Fire door signs can also be used to highlight obstacles and hazardous locations, as well as giving straightforward instructions on how to open the fire door. In moments of stress when action needs to be taken quickly, a simple sign telling you how to open a door can save valuable time in an emergency.

Signs to consider for instructing building occupants on how to open a fire door can include:-

• Push bar to open


• In case of fire break glass


• Pull to open


• Turn to open


• Push bar to open

This list is by no means exhaustive, but if you cannot find a fire door sign that exactly meets your needs then we can provide you with a custom-signs service. All you need to do is specify the size of your sign, its material and the message you require.

Other fire door signs that are essential in ensuring quick and easy exit from your building in an emergency should include instructions to keep fire doors clear of any obstructions and should be positioned both indoors and out. The latter is especially important if your fire door leads into your car park so that drivers know they should never park in front of fire doors.

Fire Assembly Points

Once everyone has safety exited your building in an emergency, you need to make sure that they then know where to gather for your fire marshal to do a head count. Fire assembly signs are intended to do just this. Our outdoor fire assembly signs can be fixed to posts in your car park, meaning that you are not restricted on where you can create your muster points as there is no need to have a wall in the area onto which to affix the sign.

Choosing the right fire door signs

Seton offers a full range of fire door signage, so you can find the best signage options for your work site. However, with so many different fire door signs to consider and fire door laws to be mindful of, it can be difficult to know which fire door keep shut signs are the best choice for your workplace.

It is important that every workplace, no matter how big or small, follows the fire door signage regulations and properly marks out the fire doors in every workplace. For large work sites or buildings, Seton offers a number of different fire door signs in multi-packs of six signs, such as the Fire Exit Keep Clear Signs, Fire Door Keep Shut Signs and Automatic Fire Door Keep Clear Signs.

It is also important for every fire door to be clearly demarcated, and to have signage such as our Push, Pull, Turn or a Slide to Open sign in order to remind all employees and visitors to the work site of how the fire doors are used.

In an emergency situation, it is important that everyone on the premises evacuates as soon as possible. However, if an incident has occurred which has cut the power, or there has been a power outage or blackout, it is much more difficult to safely evacuate a work site, and to ensure that every single person is accounted for and out of harm’s way.

Seton has a number of difficult types of fire exit door signage which are luminescent and therefore visible even during a blackout, including Nite-Glo Photoluminescence and Xtra-Glo finishing.

The Nite-Glo Photoluminescence such as that on our Fire Door Keep Clear Signage will appear to be bright white when exposed to sun or light, but will glow brightly as soon as the light source is cut. Nite-Glo is made with a PSPA Class B photoluminescent material, which means that once the sign is activated by a good quality light source, it will be able to provide six hours of illumination.

The Xtra-Glo signs Seton offers, such as the Fire Exit Keep Clear Signs in Xtra-Glo, are made of durable aluminium. After charging for just five minutes, these signs can remain illuminated for over 24 hours.

As always, it is important that all employees are trained on the proper evacuation routes and emergency response best practices, so that they know where to go and how to exit the premises safely.