Means of Egress

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." 

By |2016-05-18T09:18:56-04:00June 17th, 2011|Fire Doors, Means of Egress, Videos|2 Comments
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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!  :-)

By |2013-03-01T11:16:59-05:00June 12th, 2011|Means of Egress, Panic Hardware|4 Comments
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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.

By |2014-10-09T18:51:38-04:00June 3rd, 2011|Means of Egress, WWYD?|4 Comments
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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.  :-)

By |2014-04-29T12:14:41-04:00May 18th, 2011|Means of Egress|22 Comments
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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...

By |2016-05-18T17:02:53-04:00April 7th, 2011|Means of Egress|2 Comments
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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.

By |2020-03-05T10:10:42-05:00January 31st, 2011|Means of Egress, Panic Hardware|6 Comments
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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.

By |2013-06-02T19:32:07-04:00January 20th, 2011|Beautiful Doors, Fire Doors, Funky Applications, Gates, Means of Egress, Road Trips|13 Comments
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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.

By |2014-10-08T09:10:36-04:00December 5th, 2010|Door Closers, Doors & Frames, Doors Gone Wrong, Means of Egress|0 Comments
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Exit? Really??

I received these photos from a fire inspector in Texas who shall remain nameless so he'll keep sending me the crazy stuff he sees in his travels.  If you recall from earlier posts, an egress door has to look like a door, and can't be disguised in any way.  This egress door is in a restaurant that seats 200-250, and the second photo is what the means of egress looks like after you go through the door.  Nice.

By |2012-01-27T22:01:42-05:00December 3rd, 2010|Doors Gone Wrong, Means of Egress|0 Comments
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Movie Night

A couple of weeks ago someone asked me whether the exterior exit doors for a movie theater required panic hardware, and in my opinion, the answer is a resounding YES!  Movie theaters are considered assembly occupancies, and the occupant load is well over the limit (50 or 100 occupants depending on the code) that would require panic hardware.

By |2013-02-09T01:17:58-05:00November 22nd, 2010|Fire Doors, Means of Egress|0 Comments
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Maverick Bars

I recently received this photo from Michael Wojnarowski of Builders Hardware, and it reminded me of a Powerpoint presentation I ran across a while back.  The presentation was created by the Anne Arundel County Fire Marshal Division - Code Enforcement Bureau, and the topic is Maverick Bars.

By |2016-02-10T10:38:55-05:00November 17th, 2010|Means of Egress|0 Comments
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Out to Lunch

I saw this door at a restaurant today.  The decor is meant to look like a garage, and it's pretty cool - I especially liked the naked closers.  I did wonder about the main entrance door though.  It's tough to tell from the photos, but the graphics from the wall run over the aluminum portions of the door and frame and across the glass, so the glass is tinted orange with the dark stripes running across.  You can barely see the word "extra" on the glass at the top of the door, but look at the window on the side of the vestibule - it's the same treatment that's on the door.  When I looked at it from my seat it looked dark orange just like the wall.

By |2014-09-10T22:49:10-04:00November 11th, 2010|Means of Egress|6 Comments
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Courtyard Egress

A few weeks ago I did a post about egress from an occupied roof, and that reminded me to go back and dig out some courtyard photos I took a while ago.  When a courtyard is completely enclosed with no means of egress that leads directly to a public way, the path of egress is typically into the building and then out again through the building's egress doors.

By |2013-02-09T01:10:20-05:00November 2nd, 2010|Means of Egress, Panic Hardware|2 Comments
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Trick or Tweet

Ellen DeGeneres cracks me up - even though she never talks about doors and I never have time to watch her show any more.  Recently, Ellen and I became Facebook friends, so I get random status updates from her show which often include videos.  I happened upon a video of when she sent one of her writers through a haunted house, and about 25 seconds into the video, I noticed a set of emergency exit doors (which have LCN 4110s and Von Duprin 99s if I'm not mistaken).  Yes, I do realize that I'm a weirdo, but you should know that by now.    

By |2017-09-23T09:52:15-04:00October 31st, 2010|Means of Egress, Videos|0 Comments
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Rooftop Garden

As promised, I found quite a few interesting applications during our stay at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, which I will post here in the next few weeks.  I also received some reader photos in response to my plea for help in keeping this site supplied with posts that weren't too time-consuming for me while my daughter recovered from her surgery.  Thank you for the photos, as well as the emails to check on her progress.  We were able to go home on Friday as planned, and she's running around like nothing happened.

By |2013-03-01T11:10:47-05:00October 11th, 2010|Means of Egress|12 Comments
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Surgical Suite Entry

I have been amazed and touched by the number of people who actually read my Good News/Bad News post all the way to the end and took the time to call or email me about my daughter's surgery.  Thank you so much for your care and concern.  It has been a tough week and an extremely stressful day, but everything went perfectly and my daughter is doing really well.  We're still in the hospital but we hope to be able to go home tomorrow (actually today since it's 2 a.m.).

By |2013-03-01T11:14:40-05:00October 8th, 2010|Funky Applications, Means of Egress, Panic Hardware|5 Comments
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Good News / Bad News

First the good news.  When the annual DHI conference was held in Boston, I conducted a 3-hour code class for architects (I later conducted the class for our DHI chapter.).  Public speaking isn't my favorite thing to do, so when one of the attendees approached me before class started and said, "You're not REALLY going to talk for 3 HOURS about CODES, are you?", I got a little nervous.  When we conduct presentations for architects, they're typically lunch-n-learns - 1 hour max, with lunch (and cookies!) as an incentive to attend.  We get great feedback on our lunch presentations, but asking architects to sit through 3 hours of discussion on hardware and codes was a different story.  To my surprise, about 100 architects registered to attend, they actually showed up, and they stayed until the end.  I didn't lose my train of thought, pass out, have an "accident", or lose my voice, so I considered the class a success.

By |2013-03-01T11:13:52-05:00October 2nd, 2010|Accessibility, Fire Doors, Means of Egress|3 Comments
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Back to School

I received these photos last week and I didn't have much advice...maybe someone else does.  These are classroom doors in a school for autistic children, and the extra locksets are due to the special needs of the students.  The students are unable to retract both latches at the same time (if they can even reach the upper lockset).  While this keeps the children in the classroom (a good thing), it also prevents egress (a bad thing).

By |2012-01-27T22:07:29-05:00September 23rd, 2010|Fire Doors, Funky Applications, Locks & Keys, Means of Egress|7 Comments
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The Coliseum

You wouldn't think that a fair would be a great place for door-hunting, but I saw the doors below at The Big E last weekend.  There's a lot going on here - sliding, folding, and swinging doors serving a giant assembly occupancy.  This reminds of many scenarios dreamed up by architects that I've advised strongly against.  No offense to all of the architects out there, but I'll bet the facility hates these doors.

By |2016-06-15T11:21:52-04:00September 21st, 2010|Accessibility, Funky Applications, Means of Egress|0 Comments
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