Standards Australia and the Office of the NSW Building Commissioner (OBC) have jointly developed an online training course designed to help local government and industry officials improve fire door safety.

The module will be delivered via TAFE’s Construct NSW Digital Learning Platform.

The course is designed to help fire safety professionals better comply with protection standards, and is aimed at engineers, certifiers, architects, builders, strata managers and anyone is involved in the design, installation, maintenance and verification of fire doors.

Topics covered include identifying when and where fire doors are required, understanding minimum standards for fire doors, inspecting and assessing fire doors and completing approved fire safety statements.

The course is recognised as continuing professional development (CPD) by the Fire Protection Accreditation Scheme (FPAS) which is now a mandatory accreditation for fire safety practitioners in NSW. It references relevant Australian Standards in the 1905 series for fire-resistant building components.

NSW Building Commissioner, David Chandler says the module is a significant educational resource for fire safety practitioners that would help create safer buildings.

It cames after an audit conducted by NSW Fair Trading between September 2021 and September 2022 found 46 per cent of NSW residential apartment buildings had serious defects in fire safety systems.

A subsequent report by the OBC identified action the  NSW Government could take to address the shortfallings, including better training and certification.

The course can be accessed from the Construct NSW Digital Learning Platform here.

*statement provided by Standards Australia with edits by GN