WW: Exploding Closer
WHOA. Today's Wordless Wednesday photo courtesy of Deputy Jeff Tock of Allegion.
WHOA. Today's Wordless Wednesday photo courtesy of Deputy Jeff Tock of Allegion.
This Wordless Wednesday photo from Scott Straton of Allegion shows not just an exit that requires two operations to release the latch...the operations must be performed simultaneously! NOOOO!!!
I could hardly believe my eyes when I received these photos from Kevin Wiley, a fire marshal. These doors are in a college dorm, and he said at first he didn't know why the door didn't close when he removed the wood wedge holding it open. Look closely...
Anyone see a problem with this Wordless Wednesday photo sent in by Art of Doors?
Brian Lane of Allegion sent in the photos below (via Deputy Jeff Tock). This is a cross-corridor door in a health care facility. The wall behind the door MUST be temporary, but wow...
I think we all know by now that egress doors are not allowed to be painted or covered in a way that would disguise them (except certain doors in health care occupancies where NFPA 101 allows murals)...
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.
This Wordless Wednesday photo could have easily been a Fixed-it Friday photo, but since this "fix" is on an occupied Assembly space, it left me Wordless. Thank you to Dave Ilardi of Allegion for sending me photos from the family vacation. :D
Take a close look. There are 2 doors in this opening - one inswinging, one outswinging. Each has 2 surface bolts. The request was to add yet another lock to these doors. Yikes.
In addition to the fact that you're not supposed to disguise egress doors, those hinges are severely under-engineered for those doors. Photos sent in by Dave Ilardi of Allegion.
I think this would discourage me from attempting any lock replacements! Thanks to Locksmith's Journal for this Wordless Wednesday photo!
See any problems here? Thanks to Tim Weller of Allegion for this Wordless Wednesday photo! The fun never ends!
This photo was taken in a high school, while school was in session. The doors lead from an enclosed courtyard into the school - the egress path should pass through the interior of the school and out the main exit doors to the public way...
I was very surprised at research conducted by the Georgia Tech Research Institute, which found that people trusted a robot to guide them to safety, even when it made mistakes or experienced technical difficulties...
This photo was sent to me by Joanne Gretter of Herman Gibans Fodor, Inc., and I really have no words.
What do you think? Does this door meet the intent of NFPA 1 if the security devices are only engaged when the building is not occupied?
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?
I wonder how the designer got away with the design of this exit. From the corridor, it gives the impression of a normal exit door. When you open the door, you can only go either up to the 7th floor or onto the adjacent roof. There is no way to go down to exit the building...
This Wordless Wednesday photo was posted on the Truck Floor Training Facebook page, by Ian Vandenberg of Travis County Fire Rescue. I just love the extra-large wood wedges...
This Wordless Wednesday photo (from Keith Brown and Steve Bildzok of Allegion) reminds me of how I feel when I walk into my kids' bedrooms. "WHY? What is all of this crap on the floor and why isn't it put away where it belongs? What excuse could you possibly have...
I'm Wordless about today's photo, sent in by Paul Goldense of Goldense Building Products. But on another topic...please help with yesterday's WWYD? post if you can...
Today's Wordless Wednesday photo was sent by Nolan Thrope of Allegion...this is a cross-corridor fire door in a school. The closer is missing as well as the obvious hinge problem. Sadly, this type of neglect is not uncommon. :(
A video about classroom barricade devices - a particular company's devices, actually - has been posted on a Facebook page and has gone viral. Right now, about 14 hours after it was posted, it has over 3 million views. There are over 1,000 comments - many of them in support of this idea...
This Wordless Wednesday photo from Scott Straton of Allegion requires a bit of explanation. In Scott's words..."My niece was working out at 3:00 AM (she is an avid runner and had an early flight) at a hotel fitness room. When she went to get a drink of water, the lock failed and she was not able to get out..."
I love it when non-hardwarey people send me photos of egress problems or faulty fire doors. Today's Wordless Wednesday photo is from my friend Gia Jobin, who saw this door on a university campus and recognized that there was a problem...
We've all seen this somewhere. Did you say something? Was the problem resolved?
These photos were shared on the Truck Floor Training page on Facebook, and are posted here with the permission of Chris Morgani of the Fort Myers Beach Fire Department. In addition to the obvious problem, the door is welded shut. Maybe it's not a required exit, or maybe someone made an uneducated decision. We will probably never know...
Sometimes I wonder if y'all are creating these Wordless Wednesday and Fixed-it Friday photos just so you can get famous. :)
I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving with friends and family!
Today's Wordless Wednesday photo, sent to me by Aaron Owens of Allegion, is not an unusual code violation. The location is what leaves me wordless - an NHL hockey arena...
There are some AHJs who allow security measures that are not compliant for egress if they're only used "after hours." I always say that this is a slippery slope, because once the device is installed, there's no guarantee that anyone will remember that the door is supposed to be unlocked during business hours...
These Wordless Wednesday photos are from Erich Friend of Teqniqal Systems. According to Erich, the first photo is the initial egress door out of the auditorium. If you make it past the lab table, you encounter the trash can and piano stored in front of the exit discharge. No words...
This Wordless Wednesday photo kind of ties in with yesterday's pool gate post. This is NOT the way to provide access control on swimming pools, tennis courts, or any other chain link gate for that matter...
John Lozano from Allegion sent me this photo he took at a festival in Wisconsin...I've seen worse at the state fair, but this exit is a little sketchy...
This is the exit access leading to a 3rd-floor fire escape in a Montreal hotel. I'm Wordless.
According to Nathan Burkhardt of Opening Technologies, this church addressed their classroom security by adding shades for the vision lites, and changing the locks to office function with a turn-button. Because the kids and teachers were getting injured by the sharp turn-button design...
Who knew "Wordless Wednesday" translated so perfectly into Spanish? I think "mudo" is more like mute than speechless, but I'm going with it! I've become somewhat numb to Mexican egress, but some of the accessibility modifications are extreme enough to catch my eye...
Chris Ostwinkle from DH Pace sent me today's Wordless Wednesday photo. The bar above the panic limits the degree of opening, which may have contributed to the closer issues. And in case you missed it...that's a double-cylinder deadbolt above the panic, in addition to the slide bolt. :(
This is the rear exit of a liquor store. Although the store was closed when this photo was taken, on the other side of the door there is an exit sign, panic hardware, a surface bolt, and a padlock. This type of retrofit is common when additional security is needed, but it is NOT code-compliant...
Today's Wordless Wednesday photo came from the New York Daily News. The full article about the high-end furniture store being cited by OSHA for blocked egress routes and propped open fire doors can be read here...
Seriously...this Wordless Wednesday photo makes me want to cry. Posted with the permission of Ron Burgess Jr. of the Westport Fire Department (originally posted on the Truck Floor Training Facebook page).
The door in these Wordless Wednesday photos has 7 surface bolts, an exit alarm, a door position switch, AND a rolling door. Wow.
What I want to know is...why do some people think it's ok to use these locks after-hours, when the building is unoccupied? I don't see anything in the codes to support that, but it seems to be a common belief. Am I missing something?
Articles touting the value of classroom barricade devices without any mention of the related safety issues are legitimizing the use of these devices that are not compliant with the model codes. An article in this month's Security Management magazine, a publication of ASIS International, covers the perceived security benefits of the devices used in the Mentor, Ohio school district...
I've written quite a few specifications for museum projects and although many architects have asked me for "invisible doors," I do my best to talk them out of it. These are two different museums, in two different states, but these Wordless Wednesday photos were both sent to me the same week by two different people...
These photos from an Alabama day care center make me nauseous. Literally. I'm Wordless.
I've seen a lot of funky egress route restrictions in airports, but this was a first...
I have nothing to say except "thank you to Grah Security for today's Wordless Wednesday photo."
This Wordless Wednesday photo from John Gant of Allegion ties in with Monday's post about viewer locations. I've never seen a requirement for 3 viewers in a hotel room door, so my guess is that one of the viewers was originally installed at the wrong location and a third was added to solve the problem...
Jeff Payton of Williams Electronics sent today's Wordless Wednesday photo. I'm the first to admit that I'm not an expert on exit signs. If you ARE an expert on exit signs, can you explain the need for the high-level sign? If only the door closer installer had taken as much pride in the installation as the conduit installer. :)