FF: Cross-Keyed
All is not well...
All is not well...
This post was published in the April 2014 issue of Doors & Hardware
This post was printed in the March 2014 issue of Doors & Hardware
These photos from Jodie Meyers of Phillips-Langley illustrate exactly what Wordless Wednesday is all about. This fire door leads to a laundry room in the physical education department of a high school. The door has plenty of problems (feel free to list them in the comments)...
To celebrate 5 years of iDigHardware, don't forget to send me some photos in exchange for a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card!
This photo from Linda Varnadore of Allegion left me Wordless, but I couldn't wait until next Wednesday to share it. I guess this qualifies as a Fixed-it Friday photo, since someone obviously fixed whatever problems this fire door had by holding it open for the foreseeable future. :(
I really enjoyed reading everyone's input on my post about emergency exit seals, and since I'm currently in a 3-day class for the NFPA Certified Fire Plan Examiner program and don't have a lot of time for blogging, here's another question for which I have no concrete answer but would love your insight...
Another hotel, another fire door problem. In case you're new to this site...this fire door needs a positive latch, and will not perform as designed and tested to protect the stairwell as a means of egress for the hotel guests if there is a fire. Unacceptable!
Have you ever seen an egress door with a tamper-resistant tag on it? I saw one on a department store stair door in New York City last year, and Wayne Ficklin sent me these photos which got me thinking about this application again. Would you consider these acceptable for use on an egress door? Why / why not?
The design blogs and architectural sites are all abuzz about these doors designed by Austrian artist Klemens Torggler. I agree - they are very cool and it's about time someone invented an alternative to the hinge, which has been around for thousands of years. Let's not ruin the party by mentioning security, egress, durability, accessibility, fire resistance, or chopped off fingers, and just enjoy the innovation. :D
"What seems to be the problem? Oh."
Last month I wrote about a fatal fire in a Manhattan high-rise residential building, where non-compliant fire doors likely had an effect on the outcome. There was initially a lot of publicity surrounding this tragedy and even a proposal for new legislation, but as I feared, within a couple of weeks the media was no longer reporting on the story. I recently read the article below in the monthly newsletter from the Center for Campus Fire Safety, and I loved it so much that I asked them if I could share it with you. It gives a different perspective on the same issues that I preach about all the time, from Phil Chandler, a firefighter and fire marshal. Many thanks to the Center for Campus Fire Safety, and to Phil.
Here's a big group of reader photos from the emailbox!
Instead of maintaining the fire exit hardware on this pair of fire doors, the rods and most of the latches were removed and an exit alarm was installed. The most disturbing part is that there are doors like this EVERYWHERE...fire doors and egress doors that will no longer perform as designed, tested, and required by code, because of lack of maintenance or improper modifications. And without widespread adoption of the fire and egress door inspection requirements, we're left to address these problems one door at a time. In each fatal fire the main focus seems to always be on sprinklers, but compartmentalization is key to preventing the spread of smoke and flames. It goes without saying that code-compliant egress is a life safety feature which can't be compromised.
In case you have a hard time reading the sign on the LHR leaf, it says "Please do not use these doors. Leave them LOCKED!" :(
This is not door-related, but consider it a public service announcement that shows how much I care about you. I don't know how common this is, but I did confirm that a 9-volt battery can be used to start a fire and improper storage has led to several residential fires. If we proactively replace our smoke detector batteries and store the partially-used batteries until they are recycled, we need to take precautions to avoid the situation in the video below.