Fire Door Inspection Checklist
A long, long time ago, I created a fire door inspection checklist; it was even published in a book. Given the new requirements for health care facilities...
Another Fire Door Win!
Readers often ask me to share photos of fire door assemblies that have helped to prevent a fire from spreading. I just received the photos below...
Cross-Corridor Pair Follow-Up
So far, there are 20 comments on the Fixed-it Friday post from last week, so I think a follow-up is in order...
FF: Cross-Corridor Pair
Today's Fixed-it Friday photo came from Revelation Door Inspections. This is a pair of fire doors in a university education building. See any problems?
In the News…
A code inspector in Schenectady, New York has been indicted along with the building manager, in connection with a 2015 apartment fire that resulted in 4 fatalities...
Fire Door Inspection App
About 5 years ago I was in a large hospital that had just spent thousands of dollars (probably tens of thousands) to have a "pre-Joint-Commission inspection" done...
Arson at Westlake Apartments
This fire was also mentioned in a report called Selected Published Incidents Involving Fire Doors, which was compiled for me by NFPA's One Stop Data Shop back in 2009...
Fire Door Inspection Training
I get calls every week about training on fire door inspections - how and where to learn more. I just read that NFPA and DSSF are teaming up to provide 1-day training sessions...
WW: Delayed Egress Mag-Lock
With the recent adoption of NFPA 101-2012 by CMS, the annual inspection of fire door assemblies has become a top priority for many health care facilities...
Open Fire Door = Insurance Won’t Pay?
If insurance companies stop paying claims because of fire door assemblies that are not properly maintained, or because a fire door was not closed and latched when the fire occurred, fire doors are going to start getting a lot more attention...
FF: Stairs
I am often asked to provide "proof" that this type of repair is unacceptable. Often the most direct route to find that evidence is to ask...
QQ: Does every component of a fire door assembly have to be listed/labeled?
At least once a week someone asks me whether each and every component of a fire door assembly has to be listed or labeled...
FDAI in the News
I have several Google News alerts set, so every day I receive a few emails with lists of articles that might be interesting to the readers of iDigHardware. There was one on today's list about fire door inspection...
FF: NOT Fire Door
Today's Fixed-it Friday post includes a serious question for all of you to ponder. I'll get to it in a minute. First...I received the photos below from a code official...
WW: Trouble in Texarkana
I am writing this blog post from a hotel in Texarkana, Arkansas, where I saw the Wordless Wednesday door in the photos below. I hope that by the time you read this post I will be back on the road. Fingers crossed!
WW: Kick-Down Stops
Nathan Burkhardt of Opening Technologies sent me this Wordless Wednesday photo of the kick-down stops (holders) they removed from the fire doors on one of their projects. Wow.
WW: Fire Door Inspection
John Lozano of Allegion sent me these photos from a recent class on fire door inspection. What problems do you see on this pair of fire doors in a health care facility?
Landlord Jailed for Door Failure
Jay Liptrot is a Wales landlord, and ironically - a firefighter, who failed to install a fire door assembly to protect an apartment where 2 adults and 3 children died in a tragic act of arson. Although he was originally charged with manslaughter, his charge was reduced and he was convicted and sentenced to 15 months in prison...
Fire Door Inspection Cards
A few months ago I posted some images of a new educational piece on fire door inspections. When I was in Carmel last month I saw one in person, and I think they're great! They're hard laminated cards - about 4 inches wide and 12 inches long. We have some in stock...
Field Labeling of Fire Doors and Frames
With increased enforcement of the fire door assembly inspection requirements, deficiencies will no longer be ignored. When an AHJ sees non-labeled doors or frames in a location where a fire door assembly is required, it may be an indicator of other problems with the opening protective. In the past, there were limited options...
Fire Door Safety Week
It’s Fire Door Safety Week in the UK, and I can’t help but wonder why the US is so far behind in educating the public about the value of fire doors. It’s a shame, really.
Anatomy of a Fire Door (video)
One of my original goals when I started this blog in 2009, was to make learning about codes less painful. I think these whiteboard animation videos do just that! Here's the latest...all about fire door assemblies!
FDNY and FDAI
We just got back from NYC, where we were invited to visit the FDNY fire station for Engine 320 and Ladder 167 by the developer of the Cease Fire hinge, which I wrote about last fall. The kids are working on a project to help reduce deaths in home fires, so it was a privilege to visit the station and get all of their questions answered...
Middle School Fire Contained by Closed Door
A malfunctioning power strip is getting most of the media attention for causing this fire, but Fox 13 reported that "a closed door kept the fire from spreading beyond the guidance counselors' offices, and therefore it did not reach any classrooms."
Anatomy of a Fire Door
Openings in fire-resistance-rated partitions are protected by fire door assemblies – also called opening protectives, an assembly of products which have been tested and listed for this purpose. These products may come from various manufacturers and can be listed by different test laboratories, but they work together as an important part of a building’s passive fire protection system...
FF: Fire Code Fines
This news report is a great Fixed-it Friday example of how the city of Barrie, Ontario is going to fix their fire code violations - by giving fire inspectors the ability to hand out tickets for violations on the spot. The fine for propping open fire doors? $350 each!
Close the Door Please, I’m Busy in Here – Kelly M. Byrne
What I like about the Rescue 2 Training post is that it gives the firefighter perspective on why a closed door can be so helpful during a fire. If every firefighter understood the value of fire doors (and other doors), imagine how much more attention the non-compliant doors would get...
WWYD? Fire Door Closing Cycle
I was asked this question last week - when testing a swinging fire door to determine whether it closes and latches, what degree of opening is used? Do you open the door fully? Does the door have to close and latch from any position?
Fire Door Win! (and a fail)
Reporter Quote: "The people who ran from the room where the fire began left the door open behind them, and the fire quickly spread into the hallway..." Fire Department Quote: "There's a fire door that separates the two compartments of that wing, and it did its job..."
Video: NIST Fire Simulation
A report recently released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) examines the fire dynamics of a house fire in Chicago, where failure of a door released hot gases and resulted in the death of a firefighter.
Online Decoded Class 2
My next online Decoded class will be held on Wednesday, December 17th from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Eastern. This is the second class in the series of 4 presented on behalf of the Door & Hardware Institute where I will cover the requirements for fire door assemblies, including...
Fire Champ
Personally, I would love to take a photo, fill in some information, and have it routed to the correct fire department. But there are challenges when considering an app like this for use on a wider scale...
Another Open Fire Door
A 42-unit apartment building was destroyed by fire last week in Columbus, Ohio. The fire began in a second-floor apartment, and the door to the apartment was left open when the resident evacuated. According to investigators, fire doors in the corridor and stairwell were also propped open, allowing the smoke and flames to spread and leaving the residents no safe escape route...
Fire Doors in the News
Lots of fire doors in the news, in large part because of Fire Door Safety Week last week!
Time-Sensitive Opportunities!
There are 3 educational opportunities coming up, but you have to act fast! An on-demand video of a fire door test - 1 week only! Access Control Training begins Thursday! The next online Decoded course begins tomorrow!
Fatal Apartment Fire – Chicago, Illinois
According to news reports, it sounds like an open door or possibly two open doors, along with an illegally locked second exit and insufficient smoke detectors may have contributed to the deaths of 4 children in Chicago's Roseland neighborhood...
NFPA 101 on Fire Door Inspection
Last week I was asked whether the 2012 edition of NFPA 101 - The Life Safety Code requires annual fire door inspections for health care facilities. As many of you know, the Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will soon be using the 2012 edition of NFPA 101 when they survey health care facilities...
Fatal Fire – Lowell, Massachusetts
It's too early to know whether fire doors or other passive fire protection measures played any role in the fire last week in a Lowell, Massachusetts apartment building where 7 residents were killed. Regardless, this fire underscores the value of passive fire protection, because many apartment buildings do not have active fire suppression systems - sprinklers...
The Effect of Oversized Clearances on Fire Door Tests
Rectifying clearance problems can be difficult and costly, so it may be tempting to leave non-compliant doors in place and assume that a little extra clearance won’t affect the performance of the fire door assembly; I can now say from first-hand experience that this is not true...
DHI Technical Education in Dallas!
Back in the Olden Days when I went to hardware school, I couldn't wait to get my AHC certification and become an instructor. I really looked up to them (and still do!). They were very knowledgeable but they had a lot of fun too. Then life happened...
Art Institute Fire Doors
These are 3-hour fire doors which divide the modern wing of the museum from the older wings. This is an award-winning museum which houses more than 300,000 works of art in its priceless collection. The chance of a fire may seem unlikely, but if a fire occurs, the wedged-open fire doors will not protect the rest of the museum...
Multi-Family Fire Door Safety – The Role of Fire Doors
Fire door assemblies play a vital role in the protection of life safety, yet many people remain unaware of their existence. We pass through these doors every day in commercial, institutional, and multi-family residential buildings. A lack of awareness...
The Inspector – by Phil Chandler, CampusFireSafety.org
Last month I wrote about a fatal fire in a Manhattan high-rise residential building, where non-compliant fire doors likely had an effect on the outcome. There was initially a lot of publicity surrounding this tragedy and even a proposal for new legislation, but as I feared, within a couple of weeks the media was no longer reporting on the story. I recently read the article below in the monthly newsletter from the Center for Campus Fire Safety, and I loved it so much that I asked them if I could share it with you. It gives a different perspective on the same issues that I preach about all the time, from Phil Chandler, a firefighter and fire marshal. Many thanks to the Center for Campus Fire Safety, and to Phil.
FF: Rodless
Instead of maintaining the fire exit hardware on this pair of fire doors, the rods and most of the latches were removed and an exit alarm was installed. The most disturbing part is that there are doors like this EVERYWHERE...fire doors and egress doors that will no longer perform as designed, tested, and required by code, because of lack of maintenance or improper modifications. And without widespread adoption of the fire and egress door inspection requirements, we're left to address these problems one door at a time. In each fatal fire the main focus seems to always be on sprinklers, but compartmentalization is key to preventing the spread of smoke and flames. It goes without saying that code-compliant egress is a life safety feature which can't be compromised.
BM TRADA to stream live fire door test – 9/17/13
BM TRADA will be streaming a live fire door test over the internet on 17 September, offering viewers an opportunity to see for themselves the crucial role played by fire doors in saving lives and property.
Reader Photos
Thank you to everyone who has sent me photos of doors they've seen in their travels (or while laying on the couch). Kelly Chimilar from Allmar Inc. noticed these doors with an obvious egress problem while watching Thursday Night Football. If you don't know what the problem is, I will hold a special online study session for you after work tonight. ;)
Recent News
Georgia school shooting: A hero emerges - Christian Science Monitor
Decoded: NFPA 80 – 2013 FDAI Changes (August 2013)
This post was printed in the August 2013 issue of Doors & Hardware
Impact of Citizen Involvement
I love it when people take action to rectify a code issue - especially when it's a door problem. Two articles landed on my desk in the last few days about just that - citizens who saw a deficiency and didn't let it drop until it got some attention. Both stories are from the UK and both involve high-rise apartment buildings - maybe Theodore Firedoor is helping to educate people about code-compliant fire doors.
WW: Cut it Out
Yes, this is a fire door. Anyone see a problem here?