Fire doors

[mobey]

Just something to think about/look into.

We just had a new hospital built which opened about a month ago.

While working on the alarm system a tech inadvertantly tripped the fire alarm, instantly the steel "Fire doors" normally stored rolled up above the ambulance bay doors came crashing down with tremendous force. Obvioustly if someone would have been entering/exiting the bay with a patient on the cot this could have been a very bad "false alarm"!

Needless to say, they were re-wired to trip with the sprinkler system instead of the alarm.

Just something to think about.... those in the rural may want to discuss this scenario with your fire inspector.

[Timmy]

The fire doors at my hospital are swinging doors with a mechanical arm thing that close after 5 seconds after the alarm sounds. They close pretty slowly so even if you were standing in the way it couldn’t hurt you. You can open them with your scan card on your ID badge or there is a button near the door you can push for a quick release. I don’t like the whole roller shutter coming down from the roof idea.

[mobey]

Just for anyone whom has not seen these doors before, this is what I'm talking about:

[Richard B the EMT]

I have never seen roll-up/roll-down type fire doors as in the picture shown.

What I am used to seeing are either heavy doors in a track device, that normally are closed with a counterweight to shut them after someone slides them open to pass through, or heavy steel doors rigged to close when an electric magnet turns off on the alarm sounding, but don't lock closed. The magnets are reactivated after the alarm is canceled, and the doors are manually reopened

[mobey]

Ya I am a fan of the magnet system Richard, that is what the "old" hospital had.

These ones shut under thier own weight, so by the time they are 1/2 shut you can imagine the velocity!