S 1.10 Use of safety doors and windows

Initiation responsibility: Agency/company management, Fire Protection Officer

Implementation responsibility: Site Technical Services

Safety doors, e.g. steel sheet doors, are to be preferred to normal office doors for the following reasons:

• On account of their stability, they provide a higher degree of protection against breaking and entering (e.g. for basement and delivery entrances).

• When designed as self-closing fire doors (FH door T30, DIN 18 082), they delay fires from spreading.

Steps must be taken to ensure that equivalent protective measures are taken for all space-enclosing construction elements.

• Where burglar-resistant doors are used, the use of burglar-resistant windows or façade elements (DIN V ENV 1627-1630) should be considered at the front of the building.

• Moreover, it is inadvisable to install a burglar-resistant door of the highest resistance class in a plasterboard wall.

Requirements regarding the design of security doors are contained in safeguards S 1.47 Separate fire cut and S 1.19 Protection against break-in.

In addition to the areas prescribed by the building inspectorate and the fire authorities (cf. S 1.6 Adherence to fire protection regulations), use of safety doors is advisable in rooms requiring special protection, such as server rooms, document archives and data media archives. In the case of rooms that have a high protection requirement a balanced protection concept which considers warning systems, alarms and the installation of safety doors must be drawn up. For if a potential attacker has an entire weekend in which to attempt a break-in, even a high-quality burglar-resistant door will not keep him from his goal of stealing or destroying data or equipment.

Note: The aim of a break-in could also be to tamper with data or IT systems. Central IT systems should therefore be integrity checked after a break-in (see also S 6.60 Procedural rules and reporting channels for security incidents).

Steps must be taken to ensure that fire doors and smoke protection doors are actually closed or and are not wedged open (without permission), for example. Alternatively, doors with an automatic closing mechanism which is activated in case of alarm can be used.

Additional controls:

• Has the use of safety doors and windows been checked?

• Are fire and smoke protection doors actually closed?

• Has the homogeneity of security and safety measures in the areas of burglar deterrence, fire protection and smoke protection been considered in every case?