Interesting night last night fire alarm went off in hotel but...

[SMS]

I practically lived in hotels for 6 months out of the year with my last job...Sadly, I probably would've gone back to bed after the alarm was silenced LOL.

 

[Snattlerake]

Multiple rounds to the lock set to open the fire doors?

And get charged with discharging a firearm within the city limits? Not me.

 

[John6185]

I would ask for my money to be refunded, a miserable night!

 

[Glock 40]

I thought all the doors had auto closers and the mag locks are released to close them all so fire wont spread not to prevent you from going through them.

 

[TerryMiller]

Fire doors always puzzled me. It seems as if the fire marshal and life safety codes are purposely sacrificing some people to save others by utilizing these type of doors. They are usually used in hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living, etc. I have seen some of these doors that once they have been released and they close and lock, there is no opening them from one side. I would think that is blocking a possible fire exit route.

I thought all the doors had auto closers and the mag locks are released to close them all so fire wont spread not to prevent you from going through them.

Here at the hotel in Mishawaka, IN, the doors were functional from both sides after they closed. They did NOT lock.

 

[SoonerP226]

Fire doors always puzzled me. It seems as if the fire marshal and life safety codes are purposely sacrificing some people to save others by utilizing these type of doors. They are usually used in hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living, etc. I have seen some of these doors that once they have been released and they close and lock, there is no opening them from one side. I would think that is blocking a possible fire exit route.

All the fire doors I've ever seen that would only open one way opened toward an exit, so nobody should be trying to go the way the door won't open. More recent ones have double doors that swing in opposite directions, so you can always open one from either side.

Where I retired from, we had electromagnets on the fire doors. When the fire alarm went off, it killed the power to those circuits so the fire doors closed automatically. It also killed the air handlers and notified the FD. I had access to the alarm panel, but we weren't allowed to silence any alarms; that could only be done by the FD (or PD in the case of a false alarm).

Also, I can almost guarantee that Choice Hotels (the parent company of Comfort Suites) has policies covering events like this, and the clerk was almost certainly violating those policies. I'm not sure if those are corporate hotels or if they're franchised, but I'd bet that even if they're franchised, the franchise agreement requires them to follow standardized policies on guest safety issues.

 

[SoonerP226]

The one thing that gets me is that stairwell doors are supposed to be fire doors, but I can't tell you how many hotels I stayed in last year that either had the door latches disabled or had the stairwell doors propped open. The fire marshall read us the riot act over piddly crap; I can't see how those hotels could've passed even a cursory inspection...

 

[Snattlerake]

Here at the hotel in Mishawaka, IN, the doors were functional from both sides after they closed. They did NOT lock.

Like I said I have seen some, (here in the metro area) that I worked on that do lock. There are three wings to this place and 4 floors. The elevator is the hub of the building. Upon fire alarm the doors to the wings close and lock to the side of the elevator shaft. The elevators (2) are returned to floor level automatically.

Locking the door to one wing from the central core to me is dangerous. Hypothetically the fire could be in that wing blocking the stairwell at the end. Especially since this is a section 8 housing and people live there without assistance. It just unnerves me they cannot get to the central hub to get to another fire exit. I have even spoken to the AHJ about it. He said the doors were correct for the situation.

As you know, normal fire door holders are on the wall and with low voltage from the fire panel or access control device, drop power on fire alarm.

Do you see anything wrong here?

 

[SoonerP226]

Do you see anything wrong here?

If you mean not having wall space for an electromagnet, a bunch of our fire doors didn't all have wall-mounted hold-opens; most of the newer ones (and a few of the oldest ones) were actually built into the door closers. They ran in a track along the top of the door with an electromagnetic detent that released when the alarm went off.

 

[Snattlerake]

Yeppers, I almost hate architects as much as lawyers and used car salesmen.