Today I went to a performance at a theater on a local college campus. The theater has 650 seats, so all of the required egress doors are supposed to have panic hardware. There are 4 pairs in the main lobby, all equipped with paddle devices which don't qualify as panic hardware. One of the requirements for panic hardware is that the actuating portion has to cover at least half the width of the door, and these paddles clearly do not.
I received a giant batch of photos today from a deputy fire marshal, and I could barely wait to post them. Whenever I get photos or comments from code officials I feel like the nerdy kid who got to sit with the cool kids at lunch one day. :-)
The other day I posted some photos of a fire door that had done its job and prevented a fire from spreading. Several of you emailed me about the photos, because they're SUCH a great illustration of what a fire door is for. It's easy to imagine what would have happened if it was propped open. Well, this morning I received even more photos of the same building (the Robert Moses Nature Center), from Bill Johnson of the Door Security and Safety Foundation, and this afternoon I received a link to a news article from Jerry Heppes of the Door & Hardware Institute. Thanks guys!!
If you're not familiar with Wordless Wednesday (WW), it's when bloggers post a photo which speaks for itself, without any words to gum up the experience. This post isn't technically wordless, but here's the first WW photo:
Sometimes I feel like a broken record. Like maybe people are sick of hearing me talk about fire and egress doors, how they protect us, and what happens when they are disabled or neglected. When I meet someone, I don't immediately launch into a discussion about doors because I'm pretty sure they'll think I'm a weirdo from the start and probably avoid me the next time.
Considering how many photos I took of doors during my Mommy's weekend at Foxwoods, it's a good thing I'm not a gambler. I wouldn't have had any time to check out the doors if I was stuck at the slots. I can't imagine what Las Vegas will be like...I hope I don't get arrested like this guy. Now go get a cup of coffee while these 22 photos load.
For exterior pairs I prefer to use rim panic devices with a removable mullion, but in some cases surface-mounted vertical rod devices are specified and supplied. When vertical rod devices are used on cross-corridor doors, I often specify them "Less Bottom Rod" (LBR), but on exterior doors I specify them with both top and bottom latches for increased security.
My inbox is overflowing with reader photos again. Thanks everyone!
The first time I ever saw a wicket door, it was for a post office project and I was working on the shop drawings. I haven't run into a whole lot of them since, but I saw a pair last weekend and risked the embarrassment of my friends to take some photos. The employee at the door said that I wasn't the first. :-)
Here's another interesting application that I saw at Foxwoods. These plastic covers were on all of the automatic operator actuators in the conference center.
As promised, I have some photos to post from my recent trip to Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut. I don't typically mention the locations of the photos I post, usually because I don't want to get in trouble for showing their code violations. Well, I'm not a gambler so I had plenty of time to look at doors, and I have no non-compliant door photos to post. I was pleasantly shocked. I saw two propped-open bathroom doors that had labels, but that's it. I don't even know why those particular doors were labeled, but in a facility with thousands of doors, thousands of building occupants (one website estimates over 40,000 visitors per DAY), and special security concerns, they're doing a great job with their fire and egress doors, as well as accessibility.
This post was printed in the January 2011 issue of Doors & Hardware
I've been doing some research for my FDAI presentation, looking for specific examples of how the inspection of fire doors and correction of deficiencies can have a direct impact on life safety as well as the protection of property. It's not very often that you see fire doors in the news, but these two recent examples showed up over the holidays:
I received lots of reader photos while I was going on and on about hotel doors. Here they are!
These are the last few miscellaneous photos from our vacation, but never fear...I'm headed off for a Moms' Weekend on Friday so maybe I'll have some good (G-rated) spa photos for next week. :-)
We're back from our vacation, but I have some more photos to share before I finish up this unplanned series on hotel doors. As I mentioned in an earlier post, our hotel was a series of buildings connected by propped open, non-latching, damaged doors which were originally fire rated (as indicated by the painted labels). Based on the condition of the doors, particularly the top hinges, I'm going to make the educated guess that these doors used to be operable, until the facility experienced trouble with the top hinges.
