Doorways for Fire Safety

1. Every door and every principle entrance that is required to serve as an exit shall be designed and
constructed so that the path of egress travel is obvious and direct.
According to BNBC, each occupant of a room or space shall have access to at least one exit or exit
access door.
Maximum Occupant Load & Travel Distance for Spaces with One Exit Door ( ref: BNBC) is as
follows:
Occupancy Maximum Occupant
load
Maximum travel
Distance
A. Residential 12 23
C. Institutional 12 23
D. Health care 12 23
B. Educational 12 23
E. Assembly 12 23
F. Business &
Mercantile
50 23
G. Industrial0. 50 23
H. Storage 30 30
J. Hazardous 5 8
DOORWAYS

2. Width: According to NFPA, Door openings in
means of egress shall be not less than 32 in. (81
cm) in clear width. Where a pair of doors is
provided, not less than one of the doors shall
provide not less than a 32 in. (81 cm) clear width
opening.
DOORWAYS
Width: According to BNBC, the width of a doorway shall not be
less than 1m and height not less than 2 m.
Swinging of the door shall not constrict the width of the corridor
below 0.9m measured at the most critical position.
0.9m

3. Floor Level: According to NFPA, The elevation of the floor surfaces on both sides of a door shall not
vary by more than 0.2 in.( 1.3 cm). The elevation shall be maintained on both sides of the doorway
for a distance not less than the width of the widest leaf. Thresholds at doorway not exceed 0.5 in.
(1.3 cm) in height. Raised thresholds and floor level changes in excess 0.25 in. (0.64 cm) at
doorways shall be beveled with a slope not steeper than 1 in.
DOORWAYS

4. Swing Type doors:
• Any door in a means of egress shall be of the side-hinged or pivoted side hinged type.
• According to BNBC, all exit access doors shall be of a side-swinging type.
• The door shall be designed and installed so that it is capable of swinging from any position to the full
required width of the opening in which it is installed.
• According to both NFPA & BNBC, when the occupant load exceeds 50, or in a hazardous occupancy,
the doors shall swing outward from the room or in the direction of travel.
DOORWAYS

5. Swing Type doors: Some main features that must be followed is given below:
 According to both NFPA & BNBC, Exit doorway shall not open directly on a flight of stairs. The
landing shall have width not less than the width of the door.
DOORWAYS
 The forces required to fully open an door manually in the direction of egress shall not exceed 15
lbf (67 N) to release the latch, 30 lbf (133 N) to set the door into motion and 15 lbf (67 N) to open
the door to the minimum required width.
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6. DOORWAYS
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7. Revolving Doors: The main features that are based on NFPA & BNBC are given below:
 According to BNBC, revolving doors shall not be used as a means of exit in assembly,
educational or institutional buildings or in spaces with an occupant load or more.
 Revolving doors shall be capable of being collapsed to a book fold position. When revolving
doors are collapsed into the book fold position, the parallel egress path shall provide an
aggregate width of 36 in. (91 cm).
 Revolving doors shall be not used within 10 ft (3m) of the foot or top of stairs.
DOORWAYS

8. Revolving Doors:
 Each revolving door shall have a conforming side-hinged type swinging door in the same wall as
the revolving door and within 10 ft (3m) of the revolving door.
 According to BNBC, revolving doors shall not constitute more than half of the total required exit
door width.
DOORWAYS