WW: Blocked Exits
This multitude of blocked exit photos was sent by Ian Childs of New Directions in Building Services, Sydney Australia. I think I may need to go thank Ian in person. :-)
9/11
I can't believe it has been 10 years already. I've seen a lot of remembrances in the media this week...it's one of those moments in time when we'll never forget where we were, what we were doing, who we were with, how we felt. I was about 6 weeks away from having my first child, and I first saw the television coverage at the midwife's office. They had turned off the TV in the waiting room, but had it on in an inner office...I guess it was best to keep the pack of pregnant ladies calm and deal with our anxiety one-on-one.
WW: No Exit
These are the photos that I referred to in my post about Imperial Foods and the locked/blocked exits there. These photos were taken last week, illustrating that there's still work to be done in awareness of egress requirements. This is a 7-story office building, and one of the two exits was closed off because of construction on the decking outside the door. The photos were sent to me by Peter Jordan of Jordan Consultants.
Imperial Foods Fire, Hamlet NC
Twenty years ago today, a fast-moving fire at the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant killed 25 and injured 54 of the 90 workers in the plant. Although I think egress conditions and awareness have improved in the last 20 years, there's definitely room for continued improvement. I frequently receive photos of appalling egress and fire door modifications, including some photos that I received this week of an office building exit that was blocked for construction, leaving only one exit for a 7-story office building. I'll post those photos here soon.
WW: Doubly-Safe? Or Double-Trouble?
Today's Wordless Wednesday photo was sent in by David Sochaczevski, an architect with the Soltron Group in Montreal. David saw this door near the Stitch ride in Disney's Magic Kingdom. At first glance this application clearly looks like a code problem, but I just couldn't imagine Disney purposely installing hardware that would require two motions to exit. I asked Disney about it but I was told that any information about this door was proprietary. I asked the local fire marshal and received this reply: "Thank you for bringing this safety concern to our department. The configuration in the picture you provided is not as it appears and the door does function according to code requiring only one motion to open the door."
Decoded: Stairwell Reentry – Myths & Facts (September 2011)
This post was printed in the September 2011 issue of Doors & Hardware
WWYD? – Police Station
One of my favorite job-related activities is going into a facility and helping with their hardware problems. This week I was called into a police station to look at a door that had allowed several escapes, as well as the main entrance. I thought it would be fun to see what you all would recommend in these situations.
WW: Auction House Egress
These were sent in by Mary Hinton of Mulhaupt's Inc. Can you imagine trying to exit from this "auction house" (junk shop) in an emergency? Their front door lever needs some help too. This might have been the first signal to get back in the car and keep driving!
Reader Photos
Here's the latest batch of photos sent in by blog readers. Thanks everyone!
WW: Ridglea Theater, Fort Worth TX
These photos were sent in by Morriss Johnson of CMA, the architectural firm working on the renovation of the Ridglea Theater. The first two photos are nice, but I LOVE the one of the pair. And YES, it is a required egress door.
Social Media Roundup
Here are some links to recent door-related social media activity. Enjoy!
WW: Hospital Applications
These photos were sent in by Nolan Thrope of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies. He said they had the velcro version of wander-prevention on numerous doors. What say you?
WW: Going Nowhere
This photo was sent in by Kathi Frelk of Anderson Lock (check out their blog!). It's perfect for Wordless Wednesday because I have no words for this application. Well, I guess I could say that two rim devices with a removable mullion would have been a much more secure application, but would anyone listen?
WW: Ontario Fishing Lodge Security
These photos were taken by Ted Wightman of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies, at a fishing lodge in a remote area of Ontario, Canada. I wonder who they were trying to keep out...the bears?
Egress Doors in the News
It's not often you find the variety of egress-related news stories that I've seen lately, so I compiled a few here for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
Hershey, Pennsylvania Egress
We're on the last leg of our road trip and will be home today, so here's a quick post to tide you over. I have lots more photos to share and the fact that they won't be chronologically presented offends my orderly side, but so be it.
Blocked Egress Routes
We're currently on our Summer 2011 Road Trip and I'm on the hunt for doors of interest, but so far I'm seeing more sights like this:
Chinese Restaurant Egress
I first saw this door a few weeks ago but I was late for a meeting, so I hunted it down again. It's the rear exit from a Chinese restaurant - I didn't go inside to check out the situation, but even if it's just an exit from the kitchen it still doesn't meet the requirements for single operation egress.
Ogunquit, Maine
We headed to Ogunquit, Maine for Father's Day...Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!
Hotel Vendome Fire, Boston
Today is the 39th anniversary of the fire at the Hotel Vendome, in which 9 firefighters lost their lives when the building unexpectedly collapsed during mop-up operations. Stephanie Schorow, author of 4 books about Boston, spoke about the Hotel Vendome fire, the Cocoanut Grove fire, and the Great Boston Fire of 1872 in this video made in conjunction with the NFPA. There was also an article in the May/June 2011 issue of the NFPA Journal - "The Boston Fire Trail - A walkable guide to the city's fire and disaster history."
Rainy Relay
<--- You know what that's a photo of??? Rain - torrential rain, at our Relay for Life event this weekend. It rained on and off for most of the relay, but it was REALLY bad at night. Even the die-hard high school kids in the campsite next to ours ended up sleeping in a friend's living room (all 24 of them!!). Because we didn't sleep overnight in our soaking wet tent, there were a couple of hours that we didn't have someone walking the track, but I think we had people walking for more hours than any other team. There were several hours that our team was almost alone on the track. Yes, we're crazy! :-)
WWYD? – Pediatric Unit Egress Doors
Last week I posted a photo of a deadlock on a pair with panic hardware, and I included a poll to find out what you all thought should be done about the problem. I received some photos yesterday that gave me the idea to make this a regular feature of the blog - "What Would You Do?" (WWYD). Check out the photos, the code excerpts, and scroll all the way down to vote in the poll.
Reader Photos
All of today's reader photos came from my compañeros at Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies:
Carteret Arms, Trenton NJ
Still plagued by problems: Nearly a year after new ownership, troubled city apartment buildings remain in bad state
WWYD? – Restaurant Egress (Again)
I'd love to know who did this, so I can give them a good talking-to (maybe they'll read this and track me down like the semi-concealed closer installer).
Town Hall Entrance
Can you believe I'm STILL attending town meeting 3 nights per week for 3 hours each? This was our 10th night and it will take a few more to get through all of our warrant articles. I'm sorry if I've been less productive than usual - I'm spending my blogging hours doing my civic duty. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves. :-)
Reader Photos
I'm still spending my Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday nights at town meeting, so I REALLY appreciate all of the great photos that have been sent in lately.
Decoded: New Occupant Load Requirements for Panic Hardware (May 2011)
This post was printed in the May 2011 issue of Doors and Hardware
Fire and Egress Doors in the News
Feeling the Heat: Fire Doors - Building.co.uk
Leather-Wrapped Doors
I was recently elected as a town meeting member for my town (a pretty large town - 68,000 people), and tonight I attended my first-ever town meeting. It was pretty interesting to see government in action, but I also found time to hunt down some old doors for you all.
Which way to the exit?
I wrote this post on Saturday but because of technical difficulties I couldn't get it uploaded until now. Sorry!
Reader Photos – 1 of 2
I've received lots of reader photos lately...thank you, and keep 'em coming!
An Army of Minions
Since I started this blog I've often thought how great it would be if JQP (John Q Public) knew the basic requirements of fire and egress doors. What if everyone who saw a locked egress door or a propped-open fire door had a way to change the situation? Imagine the effect this could have on life safety! In my imaginary world, I think of these informed people as door minions, except instead of serving an evil SuperVillian, they're helping to save the world. OK, it might be a stretch, but I saw this article the other day, giving me hope that there ARE door minions out there...
WW: Drill Press
I have TJ Gottwalt to thank for this Wordless Wednesday post. Thanks TJ!
Decoded: Single Operation Egress
This post was printed in the February 2011 issue of Doors and Hardware
Theater Egress
Today I went to a performance at a theater on a local college campus. The theater has 650 seats, so all of the required egress doors are supposed to have panic hardware. There are 4 pairs in the main lobby, all equipped with paddle devices which don't qualify as panic hardware. One of the requirements for panic hardware is that the actuating portion has to cover at least half the width of the door, and these paddles clearly do not.
Reader Photos
I received a giant batch of photos today from a deputy fire marshal, and I could barely wait to post them. Whenever I get photos or comments from code officials I feel like the nerdy kid who got to sit with the cool kids at lunch one day. :-)
Casino Wrap-Up
Considering how many photos I took of doors during my Mommy's weekend at Foxwoods, it's a good thing I'm not a gambler. I wouldn't have had any time to check out the doors if I was stuck at the slots. I can't imagine what Las Vegas will be like...I hope I don't get arrested like this guy. Now go get a cup of coffee while these 22 photos load.
Decoded: I-2 Special Egress Locks (January 2011)
This post was printed in the January 2011 issue of Doors & Hardware
Assembly Egress
Hopefully you're not getting sick of my vacation photos because I've got a few more. This post has a special bonus at the end though - something I've NEVER seen before.
Iroquois Theater Fire
Today is the 107th anniversary of a tragedy at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, which shaped the early codes and led to the invention of the panic device. More than 600 people lost their lives in this fire, making it the deadliest theater fire and the deadliest single-building fire in United States history.
Unequal Pairs
I've talked about this before, but the question still comes up almost weekly - "What's the code-compliant solution when replacing a pair of doors in a 5'-wide opening?"
Reader Photos
I'm in the mood to clean house (figuratively speaking only), so here's the latest collection of reader photos to hit my inbox. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to send them. More, please. :-)
Decoded: NFPA 72 on Access Control (December 2010)
This post was printed in the December 2010 issue of Doors and Hardware
Connections
When I started this blog, my goals were to organize all of the code information I had into a searchable database, and to offer a more painless way to learn about hardware. I think one of the hardest things about starting out in this industry is the way most of us learn about it - at the School of Hard Knocks. There are some great classes available through DHI and other sources, but it can take a very long time to attend them all, which gives us plenty of opportunities to make mistakes. I know I've made my fair share over the years, so I wanted to help people learn a little bit at a time and hopefully make it as painless as possible.