In a world where people are dependent on fire to survive, we have learned to control fire to serve its purpose efficiently especially in cooking food, providing heat in cold weather to name a few. Fires can either be man-made or brought about by nature such as grass fires caused by lightning. As long as it can be controlled, fires are friendly.

However, there are instances that fires are out of our controls and thus have resulted destruction of lives and properties all over the world. One of the most unforgettable moments on how fires were able to cause severe damage to a building was way back in September 11, 2001. The world was in deep shock when two commercial planes in the United States, namely American Airlines flight 11 and flight 175 were hi-jacked and was deliberately flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

After the two planes were crashed into the buildings, they were on fire for roughly 45 minutes before the buildings gave way and collapsed that resulted in the loss of a thousand lives in a single day. Those buildings have fire prevention system but nothing could have prepared them for the two airplanes that were crashed into them.

Fire doors were present on every floor as it is a very important component in a fire protection system. Fire doors plays a very important role in stopping the spread of smoke and fire which allowed many people to evacuate to safety from the twin towers on the fateful day. While fire exits play an important role in evacuating people, it is hard if there are too many people climbing down. The pace is slower and the chances of survival are slim. But with the presence of the fire doors, people can evacuate to safety safely and efficiently.

So what is a fire door? A fire door is not your ordinary door at home. They are built with tough materials that are coated with flame-proof substances that enable them to withstand or endure heat from exposure to fires for a certain amount of time. The thing is that they have different time threshold such as 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes which allows people enough time to safely evacuate or save properties until fire rescue and fire fighters arrive.

All fire doors are required to have a label indicating the test organization and the door classification in hours. In addition, fire doors must have a closing device and latch. The closing device will make sure the door closes properly; the latch will hold the door closed during a fire. Before they are sold and installed, they are tested as a complete assembly, which includes the door leaf, hinges, the latch, the closing device, and the frame.If the door passes the test, it's classified by a fire protection rating that's expressed in hours such as 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes.