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?
Fire & Egress Doors in the News
Theodore Firedoor...my hero! And I'm going to start using the word "dodgy" whenever possible. :D
Everywhere I Go
I recently compiled my family's annual photo book, and I found A TON of door photos in the process. Here are a few doors I've seen in my travels...
Providence School Inspections (and more)
Although the schools in Providence, Rhode Island, are supposed to be inspected by code officials annually, some had not been inspected for 10 YEARS. I wonder how many public schools are in the same boat?
Meeting Room Pair
I'm in Tucson this week for the BHMA Fall Meeting. My husband thinks it's all fun and games, but we've been working hard on some new standards - one for ligature-resistant hardware and one for residential hardware. There's a lot more on the agenda over the next couple of days, but it's a beautiful area to have a meeting, the hotel is great, and I saw my first javelina today (I still think it was a wild boar :D).
Fire Door Inspection – Top 10 Deficiencies
This article was originally published in the Summer 2012 issue of Life Safety Digest, a publication of the Firestop Contractors International Association (FCIA). The article has been revised slightly to reference more recent codes.
WW: Hotel Doors
How is it possible that hotels almost always have fire and egress door issues? It seems like they would get it right once, then duplicate those good applications across the chain and make sure that they're maintained. Yet hotels have been a great source of Doors Gone Wrong.
Filling Holes in Fire Doors
Whenever I teach a class on fire door inspection, questions always come up about holes in fire doors and how to fill them. I promised a class of 120 last fall at the Yankee Security Conference that I would write a blog post about it, but there was really no good solution, particularly for wood doors - until now.
Effects of Fire Doors on an Apartment Fire
On January 19th, 2011, Firefighter Mark Falkenhan was killed in the line of duty while fighting an apartment fire at 30 Dowling Circle in the Hillendale section of Baltimore County, Maryland. The fire was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the video below details the events leading to this fatality.
WWYD: Hotel Electric Room
UPDATE: This application was discussed at length on the Building Codes Forum, so go check it out to see what the AHJs had to say. The final decision was that the door should have been a 20-minute door, even if the contents of the electric room did not require a higher rating. As a 20-minute door it should have been self-closing and self-latching.
Follow-Up: 20 Minute Fire Doors
Last week I posted some photos of a pair of 20-minute doors with some "issues," and I want to thank everyone who left comments with their thoughts on the situation. Often, people tell me that they know something is required but aren't sure where to find it written, so I thought it would be good to follow up on what the issues were and why, as well as addressing some of the comments.
FDAI – Florida
The 2010 Florida Fire Prevention Code, effective December 31, 2011, requires fire doors to be maintained in accordance with NFPA 80 and references the 2007 edition of that standard in Chapter 2 - Referenced Publications. The 2007 edition of NFPA 80 requires fire door assemblies to be inspected annually as part of the maintenance requirements, and the requirements for annual inspections of fire doors are specifically indicated in the 2010 Florida Fire Prevention Code (see 12.4 below). Fire door assemblies in new and existing facilities are to be inspected annually per the 11 criteria listed below, and a written record kept for review by the AHJ. Any deficiencies must be corrected "without delay." (Click here for FDAI FAQs.)
New York Minute
My coworker Don Cherry and I with special guests.
Staples Center Follow-Up
I've obviously been slacking because this video was posted a month ago. It's a follow-up to a report about the flawed fire safety system at the Staples Center, including problems with their fire doors. Here's a link, in case you missed it too.
Yet Another Apartment Fire
How many more fires is it going to take before people understand that closed and latched doors save lives, code-compliant fire doors are self-closing and self-latching, and annual fire door inspections will make sure they stay that way?
WW: Hollow Metal Doors (Literally)
I saw both of these doors today, in two different facilities. Yes, they are both fire rated. One is a cross-corridor pair and one is a stair door.
ICC Staff Opinion on FDAI
I know there have been a lot of posts this week and hopefully my subscribers aren't getting sick of the email notifications, but I've got a couple of really important things to post so bear with me. I can take next week off if you're sick of me. :-)
Woodstock, Ontario Apartment Fire
When I lived in a condominium complex in the mid-90's, I don't think I gave much thought to fire safety. I remember hearing the fire alarm in the middle of the night and going out to my balcony to see if I could smell smoke. If not, it must be a false alarm. That seems CRAZY to me now. Luckily, I lived in a fairly safe building. The stair doors and the cross-corridor doors were never propped open. The unit entry doors had spring hinges so they didn't close as reliably as if they'd had closers, but thankfully we never had a fire while I lived there. Someday when I'm helping my oldest daughter look for her first apartment, you can bet that I won't be as lax about fire safety. I may just zip her up in a flame resistant jumpsuit before I send her off to college. :-)
FDAI – New York State
The 2010 Fire Code of New York State requires fire doors to be maintained in accordance with NFPA 80, and references the 2007 edition of that standard (Chapter 45 - Referenced Standards). The 2007 edition of NFPA 80 requires fire door assemblies to be inspected annually as part of the maintenance requirements, so by referencing NFPA 80-2007 for maintenance of fire doors, an annual inspection of these assemblies is required.
FDAI – California
The 2010 California Fire Code requires fire doors to be maintained in accordance with NFPA 80 and smoke doors to be maintained in accordance with NFPA 105. The code references the 2007 editions of NFPA 80 and NFPA 105 (Chapter 47 - Referenced Standards). The 2007 editions of these standards require the door assemblies to be inspected annually as part of the maintenance requirements, so by referencing NFPA 80-2007 and NFPA 105-2007 for maintenance of fire doors and smoke doors, an annual inspection of these assemblies is required.
“When will fire door inspections be required in my jurisdiction?”
In response to my request for a list of FAQs, my colleague and pal Kurt Roeper sent this suggestion. It's definitely a frequently asked question, but the tricky part is coming up with the answer. I'm a big fan of the old adage, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." That's how I handle all the big tasks I'm faced with, and I think it will work for this one as well.