Now a days we take the presence of fire rated exit doors for granted. Hotels, movie theaters, restaurants, and nearly all buildings we enter come equipped with exit doors. The reason this is the case, however, is because for many years there were no building standards that dictated exit devices or fire doors and many people lost their lives when fire or other emergencies caused a rush for the exits. Many times people could do escape a structure because exterior doors opened inward and, as people tried to escape, they could not be opened. Other times exterior doors were locked from the outside, or there simply weren't enough exits to accommodate the number of people trying to flee the building.
The tragic accidents that resulted in hundreds of lost lives finally led to the establishment of building standards. Today buildings must come equipped with fire doors that open outward. Fire doors must also be equipped with a bar, often called a panic or crash bar, that is mounted on the inward side of the doors and allows the door to be opened by pushing on the bar. The number of fire doors is regulated based on building size, population, location, and other factors but the general guidelines for fire doors are the same.
While some complain that fire doors are expensive, they offer an important safety feature that saves lives. Trying to cut down on fire door costs, some building owners try and substitute fire exit hardware for Accident Hazard, or panic, hardware. Fire exit hardware and panic hardware are similar, but they have significant internal differences in their construction. The latching assemblies on fire exit hardware have been constructed in such a manner that they ensure the doors will be held in the closed and latched position during a fire. They do not allow "dogging", which keeps the door closed but does not engage the latching feature, while much of the non-fire rated hardware available allows this feature. It is vital that all exit doors be equipped with fire rated hardware.
Contact Mills & Nebraska to learn more about fire rated doors and hardware.
