I Love FirefightersI’ve been holding onto these photos for over a year, not knowing exactly how to address the issue of a propped-open fire door in a fire station, of all places.  Then I saw a news report about a fire that occurred in a fire station while firefighters were sleeping, which reminded me that sharing these photos could be educational.  Who wouldn’t want to help save a firefighter, right?

The door in the Wordless Wednesday photos below leads to the stairwell that connects the first floor apparatus bay to the second floor offices, kitchen, and sleeping rooms, and the hold-open device is a piece of railroad track.  There were other issues with the fire doors in the station, and since I spent several days there I had lots of time to get to know some of the firefighters before I started asking questions.

I really wanted to know why the doors were not code-compliant.  Was it because they didn’t think it could happen to them?  Or that the sprinkler system would protect them?  Or they were unaware of the requirements for fire doors?  I’m still not 100% sure of the “why,” but the safety officer asked me to write up a synopsis of the issues, and when I went back to the station the door was no longer propped open.  (Yay!  🙂 )

With everything that firefighters have to know about fighting fires, we can’t assume that they also know all of the ins and outs of fire doors.  But in this case, the effects of non-compliant fire doors could have hit close to home.  Personally, I’m going to keep talking about fire doors, free egress, and accessibility until I’m no longer able to talk.  How about you?

Stair Door from Apparatus Bay  Stair Pair Push Side

Train Track Hold Open  Label

Hat Photo:  Zazzle

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