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.  :-)

Just when I was wondering what I should post about tonight, I received this photo from Brendan Daley of SURV.

It's tough enough to get anyone to pay attention to fire doors, but when a fire is a result of a "voodoo sex ceremony," there's little to no chance that anyone will take note of the role played by the propped-open fire door.  In a 5-alarm fire in Brooklyn on February 20th, the door to the apartment where the fire originated was propped open in an attempt to dissipate the smoke.  A window in the apartment was also opened, and heavy winds blew the fire out into the corridor.  Other open doors in the corridor allowed the fire to spread and the 7-story building was destroyed.

Judging from the photos, these doors may not have been code-compliant, but they were still able to hinder the spread of smoke and fire, at least to some extent.  That does not mean that any old non-compliant door will be fine so we might as well stop worrying about them...one of the biggest issues with fire doors is finding them propped open with a wedge or a more creative device.  If the doors are open, they're worthless.

Sometimes I feel like a broken record.  Like maybe people are sick of hearing me talk about fire and egress doors, how they protect us, and what happens when they are disabled or neglected.  When I meet someone, I don't immediately launch into a discussion about doors because I'm pretty sure they'll think I'm a weirdo from the start and probably avoid me the next time.