Voodoo Ritual (& Open Fire Door) Results in Fatality
It's tough enough to get anyone to pay attention to fire doors, but when a fire is a result of a "voodoo sex ceremony," there's little to no chance that anyone will take note of the role played by the propped-open fire door. In a 5-alarm fire in Brooklyn on February 20th, the door to the apartment where the fire originated was propped open in an attempt to dissipate the smoke. A window in the apartment was also opened, and heavy winds blew the fire out into the corridor. Other open doors in the corridor allowed the fire to spread and the 7-story building was destroyed.
Ballroom Entrance
The hotel in Las Vegas where we had our sales meeting had a Moroccan theme...I felt right at home since my husband is originally from Morocco and I love that style. The entrance doors to the ballroom had a pattern created by contrasting stain and oversized metal brads. They're labeled doors so I wonder whether the brads were considered plant-ons or whether they required any special testing or approval.
What’s wrong with this picture?
It's been a long time since I've posted one of these "quiz" photos but I want to see if you've been paying attention. This pair is at the Hoover Dam...right near the touchpad devices with the carpet modification. So, take a good look and leave a comment telling me what the problem is. I'll hold the correct answers to give everyone a couple days to think about it.
Ahoy There, Me Hardies
It's not every day a pirate tells you that you've been partying too hard. I wish that was my problem. I actually woke up with laryngitis on Wednesday, which really stinks since I was headed out of town for a meeting. I'm feeling much better after a visit to the convenience clinic, but I still can't talk very well. I'm sure some of my compañeros are happy about that.
Frankly, I’m Disappointed
We saw this building from the highway on our way to Red Rock Canyon and it wasn't hard to track it down and get the address. It was designed by Frank Gehry, and it's a brain and cognitive center for the Cleveland Clinic. I'm no expert on brain-related stuff, but I think if I was going to my brain doctor's office this building might freak me out a bit.
Carpet (Touch)Pad
I'm in Las Vegas for a meeting that starts in a couple of days, and I'm pretty sure I could find enough cool and creative doors here to last me for a few months. Today we visited Red Rock Canyon (not a lot of doors there), the Hoover Dam (more doors there than you'd think), and a weirdly beautiful building by Frank Gehry. Since I'm blogging from an iPad which is not that easy, I'll post some quick photos and save the longer posts for when I get home next week.
Love Padlocks
Who says hardware can't be romantic?! In honor of Valentines Day, I present to you a tradition that began in the 1980s in Pécs, Hungary (or maybe in Italy depending on which version of the story you believe), and has spread to cities across the globe. It seems that sweethearts are attaching padlocks to bridges, statues, fences, and other structures to express their love. My pragmatic side wonders whether the structures can handle the extra weight of this quantity of padlocks, and whether people go back and take their padlock off when they break up, but since it's Valentines Day I'll just let you all feel the love.
No Wedging Allowed
The suit was in regard to the breach of security caused by wedging open the fire door, but I thought this was kind of interesting:
More Doors After Fires
Judging from the photos, these doors may not have been code-compliant, but they were still able to hinder the spread of smoke and fire, at least to some extent. That does not mean that any old non-compliant door will be fine so we might as well stop worrying about them...one of the biggest issues with fire doors is finding them propped open with a wedge or a more creative device. If the doors are open, they're worthless.
Hospital Stops
Every so often, I wonder what I'm going to write about on this blog after I've covered all of the code requirements for doors and hardware. I mean, it's a very specific subject area so at some point I could run out of questions. And then something comes up that I've never looked into, and I stop wondering. There will always be more questions. If hardware was easy, it would be called "easyware," right? :-)
Decoded: Single Operation Egress
This post was printed in the February 2011 issue of Doors and Hardware
