Do you see what I see? THIS is why temporary locking devices should not be approved for doors serving a means of egress. They often become permanent locking devices! And I have heard some proponents of temporary locking devices say that fire marshals do not have the authority to have them removed. Does that apply to chains and padlocks too? In my opinion, fire code officials should be able to address anything that is restricting egress.
What do you think?
Thank you to Aubrey Browning of dormakaba for sending today’s Wordless Wednesday photos.
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Get out the bolt cutters and remove immediately
Don’t have the authority?? This is crazy. In my view, the fire department should immediately cut the chain with a bolt cutter.
paul
Unfortunately we see this WAY too often as a “security measure”. Hope Aubrey contacted the AHJ. I bet he did reach out; he’s a good guy!
Some people in charge! SMH!
Let the FD disable, cut, remove anything preventing egress at anytime.
A large local school district in the Buffalo Niagara region had installed ‘hitching rings’ with chains and padlocks on all exterior doors of every building with panic devices as SOP for decades. I’m told that these were removed and all doors made code compliant when building reconstruction funding was made available by the state.
Fire Marshal or not, If I saw that in one of our schools the bolt cutters would come out immediately and the remains would be deposited on the Principal’s desk.
If that was spotted by the local Fire Marshal we would be required to remove it immediately and make any necessary repairs to the door to make it operational.
School Administrators should be very aware of the liability to the School District of actions contravening the Fire Code.
BTW: I couldn’t make out the wording on the sign…Not that it matters!
I went to Detroit public schools and this was a common practice for schools when I grew up in the 70s and 80s. Sadly this is still going on to combat school break-ins, also restricting any egress shame on you Detroit.
Sadly, there is not requirement for anyone in a school system to have any official or unofficial training about what building and fire codes apply to their buildings — yet they are in charge of the buildings. Go figure! It is rare that I ever find a maintenance or administrative person with a copy of any building code or fire code. They don’t know the rules, do not have the references, usually don’t know where the references can be obtained from, nor do they seem to want to know.
Also, again sadly, I frequently hear them say “Oh, the Fire Marshal was here last week and (s)he didn’t say anything about that.” Which makes me wonder if the Fire Marshals have any actual Fire Code training, too. Do they somehow justify NOT seeing blatant and obvious Fire Code violations as somehow saving the taxpayers money? I’d rather they spend that tax revenue making the facilities code compliant than building yet more sports acreage.