At first glance this may look like just another creative Fixed-it Friday alteration, but upon deeper investigation it’s a cringe-worthy Wordless Wednesday application. This door is a marked exit from a mechanical room above the living space of a rescue squad facility, leading to the vehicle bay. The wall dividing these two areas has a 2-hour fire rating, and the opening protective is required to be a 90-minute fire door assembly.
Clearly, a lot of work went into this field modification to address an obvious problem. But the resulting door opening is not compliant with the stringent requirements that apply to fire door assemblies (and the clear opening height is lacking as well). Will the opening protective perform as designed and tested if a fire occurs? Who knows?
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How does that get past an inspection?
That’s a very good question, Deputy.
– Lori
I’m not sure it has, or will. It looks to still be in the construction phase. My guess is this opening will be lowered to finished floor height before it is all said and done.
This looks like a construction exit probably required as the other exit is either blocked off or inaccessible due to temporary construction walls
Etc
After doing inspections for over 35 years let me let you in on a little secret….. Fire Departments and municipalities operate on the “Do as I tell you, not as I do” kind of work. I’ll just pick ONE thing. Firefighters LOVE to eat and there are some GREAT cooks working in firehouses all over America. Look in the MAJORITY of fire houses ACROSS THE COUNTRY. How many of them have Code Compliant kitchen stoves and hoods with extinguishing systems? I’m going out on a limb here to say probably 75%-80% DO NOT!!! That percentage may go up or down depending on your department but not much!! If I wrote up every violation in my fire houses, I would be continuously looking for work. The worst thing is that the problem would not be taken care of… but I would be able to hold my head up high….in the unemployment line!! Fact of life! You pick the fight that’s worth fighting!! Same situation probably applies here! I don’t like it one bit, but its a fact of life!!
Yeah but isn’t a firehouse the best possible place to have a fire? The fighters and equipment are already on-site!
Matthew, You jest but you would be amazed at the amount of firehouses that have fires every year!! Google it!!
Of the more than 28K fire stations in the USA, it looks like fewer than 1 a year have a significant fire, more like 1 a decade or so. That’s what google says. If you’ve got other information please share.
That seems pretty good, I know my home town of 10K people had several serious structure fires per year, and a lot fewer than 10K structures.
jeez, man… 35 years ? you got alimony or kids in college ? put in for your pension, leave and them call them out publicly !
Project does not appear to be done, not a smooth floor, bad railings
Is it possible that the inspector was also the building occupant?
This is staggering incompetence on so many levels…
I only blame the door guy for agreeing to furnish it.
It doesn’t get past inspection because nobody has gone up there to look at it . I see this kind of stuff all to often . We as professionals have to step forward and report deficiencies like this ..without fear of reprisals… it’s our Job
Just love Government buildings.
This looks more like a Fire Fighter training scenario. First you have to keep from falling through the joint in the decking, then the burning board falls down as you open the door to navigate the drop on the other side. All this with a smoke filled room and ppe on.