Safety signs have a vital role to play in protecting the health and wellbeing of everybody on site, and few are more important than fire safety signs. Workers and site visitors need to be able to immediately tell where they can find the nearest fire exit, how to locate fire fighting equipment, and how to make sure that vital escape routes are kept clear.

One of the key considerations should always be to make sure you have the right signage in place around your fire doors. This not only means having the right messages in place to instruct users on how to find and use these emergency exits, but also understanding the colour-coding to ensure these signs are being used correctly.

Here, the experts at SafetyBuyer will explain the different types of fire safety signs used in conjunction with fire doors, and how the different colours affect their meaning.

What kind of fire safety signage is needed for fire doors?

Fire doors and escape routes are absolutely essential aspects of workplace health and safety. In case of emergency, everyone on-site needs to understand how to access the nearest fire exits and leave the premises safely; this also means that these doors need to be kept clear and unobstructed at all other times.

As such, there are two main categories of fire safety signs that are used most often with fire doors:

Blue safety signs

Safety signs with a blue background are known as mandatory signs, providing instructions about the essential steps that need to be taken to keep everybody safe. Blue safety signs are often attached directly to fire doors to provide guidance on how to use them properly. Key messages might include:

• Instructions to keep the fire door shut, to ensure doors are not wedged open, preventing them from containing flames and smoke
• Instructions to keep the door clear, ensuring that self-opening and self-closing fire doors are not blocked off by goods, bins, discarded rubbish or other obstructions during an emergency
• Warnings to keep fire doors locked to make sure they are not being used inappropriately
• Instructions to keep the fire exit unlocked while the premises are occupied

To find out more about the role of blue fire exit signs in the workplace, take a look at our blog post about the meaning of blue signs on fire doors.

Green safety signs

Green safety signs are also known as safe condition signs, and are used to highlight safe routes and essential safety facilities so that they can easily be found when they are needed. In the context of fire safety, these specific safety signs will most commonly be used to point out the location of fire doors and safe escape routes.

As such, green safety signs can be used in conjunction with your fire exit in the following ways:

• Fire exit signs that are situated directly above the fire door to show its location. These will commonly be illuminated with emergency lighting to make them highly visible in all situations
• Fire exit location markers with directional arrows to point people along the best fire exit routes, making it easy for them to find the emergency exits and fire assembly points

Other safety sign colours

The other two most common types of safety signs are yellow and red. Red warning signs are known as prohibition signs, offering warnings of prohibited dangerous actions, while yellow fire safety signs provide information on a specific hazard. These types of fire safety warning signs are less likely to be used in direct conjunction with a fire door, and are more likely to be situated elsewhere to flag up and prevent particular fire hazards.

However, your site may utilise fire action notices in the vicinity of your fire doors. These signs are not a single colour - instead, they provide a list of different actions and warnings that users need to remember in case of fire, with each entry being colour-coded according to the industry standard.

These fire action notices may provide specific information that is relevant to using the fire door safely - for example, whether the door needs to be pushed, pulled or slid open, or if a specific emergency exit is suitable for wheelchair users or people with particular needs.

Find out more

If you are looking for a complete range of fire safety signs, including warning signs and exit signs suitable for use with your fire doors, take a look at our complete range of fire door signs and fire exit signs. To learn more about how to use safety signs in your workplace, take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Safety Signs, including what the different colours and shapes of safety signs mean.

You can also browse our full range of safety signs online at SafetyBuyer, or call us on 0800 043 1061 if you have any questions.