Here are a few articles that have crossed my desk recently (and some not-so-recently but I’m cleaning house).  If you find an article that you’d like to share, send it along!

Vital Medical Supplies Saved in Blue Care Fire – Queensland Times

Shutting a storeroom door has saved a building and vital medical supplies from being destroyed in a fire.

A fire at the Blue Care Aged Care residential facility in the early hours of Sunday morning did not spread beyond a small storage room used by the Toowoomba and South West Ostomy Association.

Mr Schull was grateful that a stockpile of supplies had not been touched by fire.  He said having the door shut on the room had helped prevent the fire from spreading through the rest of the building.

Looking Back on June 26 – Encore Sun Journal (Thank you to Paul Baril of Door Systems Corp.)

25 years ago, 1988 – An attack by four ladder companies and by doors closed by a deputy fire chief were the principal factors which halted an out-of-control fire Sunday night at the old Marcal Paper Mill in Mechanic Falls. The blaze was brought under control at 12:02 a.m., ending a battle by more than 100 firefighters from nine departments. The fire destroyed the wheel room of the hydroelectric generating plant, the electrical shop, beater room and part of the maintenance shop. Deputy Fire Chief Donald Boyd entered an uninvolved section of the building and closed several fire doors in the mill. The fire was stopped by those closed doors and the fire wall between the beater room and the machine rooms.

District 34 considers new elementary security – Chicago Tribune

New locks, cameras and radios considered by District 34 for elementary schools.

In the aftermath of last year’s elementary school shootings in Connecticut, Glenview School District 34 is considering a $300,000 safety upgrade to allow teachers to lock classrooms from the inside, install video cameras and other measures.

The upgrades, presented at a recent school board meeting, are the result of discussion among school officials, the Glenview Police and Fire departments, private security audits and other local agencies. If approved, the plan would be implemented over the next two years.

Fire code violations issued – Niagara This Week

The owners of Cache Nightclub, located at 42-44 James St., were fined $3,000 for two counts of failing to ensure exits were not obstructed. Fire inspectors, working with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and Niagara Regional Police, found the door leading from the stairwell to the basement was propped open by a chair during inspections on Sept. 6, 2012, and Nov. 29, 2012. The owners were fined $1,000 for the first violation and $2,000 for the second violation.

The owner of Ryson’s Music was fined $500 for failing to correct fire code violations noted during a March 18, 2013 inspection. Violations included the use of unapproved slide bolts on an exit door; blocking the second-storey exit door; unlit exit signs; and failure to annually inspect and service fire extinguishers. The owner of the Court Street property was given until April 23 to make corrections, but they were not completed at the time of re-inspection on April 29.

Boy, 2, is seventh to die from city fire – Lancaster Online

Lancaster Bureau of Fire Capt. Ken Barton said Charles Brock might have bought the fleeing victims a little extra time when he shut a door leading to the third floor before escaping.

“Thank God he did” close the door, Barton said, noting that an open passage would have funneled smoke and gases upward like a chimney.

The door was blackened, Barton said, but “there was not a lot of fire damage on the third floor.”

Rising interest in fire doors – Specification Online

Fire door safety experts have noticed a huge increase in interest in the first six months of the year, according to new figures from the BWF-CERTIFIRE Fire Door and Doorset Scheme.
 
The BWF-CERTIFIRE website has received more than 26,000 visits from 21,215 unique visitors in the UK since January 2013, an increase of more than 350% on the same period last year.
 
Since the end of March, the time of the Lakanal House fire inquest verdict, there has been a particularly marked increase in the unique page views for information regarding the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order and other fire safety regulations. The latest BWF-CERTIFIRE video, with tips on installation of fire doors, was published on YouTube last month and is already attracting hundred of views.
 
These figures indicate a serious and growing demand for information about fire doors, especially through online channels.

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Five sentenced over Doha mall fire – Al Jazeera

(This is the fire I told you about in May of 2012.)

At least 19 people, including 13 children and two firefighters, were killed in the blaze at the Villaggio shopping mall in May 2012.

Those convicted include two co-owners of the nursery and daycare centre which was engulfed by the flames, and members of the management of the mall. Sheikh Ali Bin Jassim Al Thani, one of the co-owners, is also currently Qatar’s ambassador to Belgium, while Iman al-Kuwari, the other co-owner, is the daughter of Qatar’s culture minister.

Two other defendants, including the mall’s assistant manager and head of security, were cleared of all charges.

SIMI VALLEY, Calif., June 5 (UPI) — Two seniors at a Simi Valley high school in California will miss their graduation ceremony for gluing shut more than 100 school doors Wednesday, officials said.

The prank, which rose to the level of “felony-level vandalism,” meant school employees were busy cleaning the glue from door locks so students could get in for their first-period classes, Michael Clear, assistant superintendent of business and facilities for the Simi Valley Unified School District, was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying.

I love to see doors as art:
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MBABANE – For this year’s MTN Bushfire Festival of the Arts, Yebo! ArtReach planned, designed and constructed a four-room interactive art installation called Talking Doors.

This was a collaborative initiative between MTN BUSHFIRE, Yebo ArtReach and Canadian visual artist Indigo.
 It was designed to facilitate audience engagement with the festival theme ‘Bring Your Fire’ – igniting a collective response for positive change’.

Festival-goers were invited to move between the rooms of the installation, interacting with the different artists and art mediums, and exploring the many angles of their creative selves.

The walls of each individual room were made entirely of doors.  ArtReach and MTN Bushfire wanted to explore the idea of the door as a symbol of transition and possibility.  “The Door is an entrance, a finality, a promise, a mystery, an obstacle, an opportunity – doors contain or release, invite or impede. If doors had voices, what tales would they tell?”
Do Not Do This To Your Fire Door

And finally, Annette Paratore of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies and I both know, and hopefully you do too, that you can’t use this Good Housekeeping tip on your fire door latch!  They need to add a disclaimer!  If I see any rubber bands hanging on levers “for the next time”, I’m going to add them to my door wedge collection.

37 Double-Duty Tips for Household Items – Good Housekeeping

Coming in and out with your hands full? Loop a single rubber band around a door’s inside and outside knobs, twisting it as you do so that the “X” presses the latch open. Once finished, hang the band on the inner knob for the next time.

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