Blocked doors

The doors referred to in D3D28(1) are all required for evacuation in an emergency. Their obstruction could result in the death of people attempting to evacuate.

Open doors

Fire and smoke doors are designed to minimise the risk to people inside a fire compartment and a fire-isolated exit. A door kept open in a storey experiencing a fire could result in the emergency exit becoming unusable, or could aid the spread of fire and/or smoke to other parts of the building. If all exits are affected, people will have no way of evacuating the building.