The survey shows that 95% of those who responded had seen a fire door that had been left propped open over the last three months, while 36% said they saw this almost every day and 32% saw it at least once every week.

Additionally, 57% of those who lived in flats or apartments had never been given any information on the importance of fire doors and how they should be used. 33% felt they had been given only basic information and fewer than half of these felt that the information they got was good.

Despite this, 68% of people knew that a fire door should be inspected every six months and 88% knew that a responsible person should be required to take care of fire door assessments in public or commercial buildings and 81% knew that a standard fire door should withstand fire for at least 30 minutes in order to pass building regulations.

When questioned about what measures should be put in place to improve fire safety, 45% of survey respondents stated that tighter regulations were needed, with 36% asking for more fire sprinklers and 18% suggesting that fire doors were checked more often.

Richard Sutton from Horbury Property Services has said that they run this survey every year and this year they have seen a large increase in the number of people who are more aware of fire safety and fire doors. However, they still see many examples of doors being used incorrectly. He suggests that propping open doors may have become a bad habit during the warmer weather.

The survey questioned 80 people