A fire damper is passive fire protection that happens to live in a duct. Gemini AMPM is a fire company first — BAFE SP203-1 registered, FIRAS accredited — so we test dampers the way fire engineers expect: drop tested at least annually to BS 9999, recorded photographically, with remedials completed rather than merely recommended.
Fire compartmentation only works if it is continuous, and ductwork punches holes in it by design. Fire dampers exist to close those holes — blades that shut when heat releases a fusible link or an actuator gets the signal, restoring the wall the duct passed through. An untested damper is a hole you cannot see, in a wall you are counting on.
The law treats it that way too. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 the responsible person must maintain fire safety measures, and BS 9999 says fire dampers should be drop tested at least annually — more often in high-risk settings such as hospitals and commercial kitchens. BS EN 15650, the product standard dampers are made to, assumes that maintenance regime exists. Damper testing sits naturally alongside our passive fire protection work: same discipline, same paperwork standards.
We locate every damper — from drawings where they exist, by tracing ductwork where they do not — and cut access panels where installers left dampers sealed behind plasterboard. Each unit is drop tested: fusible links, springs and actuators checked, blades released, full closure confirmed, then reset and returned to service. Dust and grease that would stop a blade get cleared on the spot.
You receive an asset register with pass or fail against every damper, photographic evidence, and a costed remedial schedule. Then — unlike testing-only firms — we do the remedials: replacement links and actuators, spring repairs, or full damper replacement where a unit is beyond saving, followed by a retest that proves the fix. As a fire specialist, we treat a failed damper as an open breach, not a line on a spreadsheet.
BS 9999 recommends drop testing at least once a year, and your fire risk assessment can require more — hospitals, commercial kitchens and dusty industrial environments typically test more often because debris and grease are exactly what stops a blade closing. The legal duty sits with the responsible person under the Fire Safety Order 2005. Annual testing with proper records is the recognised way to show that duty is being met.
It gets recorded, photographed and reported — then fixed. Common failures are cheap: a seized spring, a corroded fusible link, debris jamming the blade. We clear, repair or replace, retest, and update the register so the audit trail is complete. Where a damper is obsolete or damaged beyond repair we quote for replacement. What we never do is note the failure and leave, because an open damper is a breached compartment wall.
Yes — it is one of the most common situations we walk into. We build the asset register from whatever exists: original drawings and O&M manuals, then physical tracing of duct runs and, where needed, new access panels to reach dampers nobody has seen since the building was fitted out. The first visit costs more than a routine one; every visit after it is faster, cheaper and properly documented.
A named engineer, not a call centre, comes back within 24 hours. Tell us the building and what you’re dealing with, and we’ll scope it properly.