Doors - Not just for Jim Morrison

Did you know that Fire Doors must be inspected annually? Yup, just like a Fire Curtain. Ref: 2010 NFPA 80, chapter 5.2.1. Most doors in an institutional building are Fire Doors, and an easy way to verify if a door is a Fire Door it is to look at the edge of the door leaf that is attached to the hinges.

If it is a Fire Door then you will see a small metal placard that says: FIRE DOOR and a bunch of other information about the door.  Look closely if you don't see it at first -- it may have been painted-over -- which is also a fire code violation. Ref: 2010 NFPA 80, chapter 4.2.2.

Inspections of Fire Doors are to check that the door is:

• There (yes, I find them missing sometimes).
• In proper operating condition (windows not broken, operating hardware all functioning).
• The latches work (and aren't covered with gaffer's tape) - this is so the door can stay closed against the atmospheric forces of a fire.
• The crash-bar (panic hardware) works and allows the door to open (no extra dead-bolts, pad-locks, or chains).
• To make sure the door is not blocked on either side in a manner that would prevent it from being opened (things like pianos, stacks of chairs or desks, book cases, filing cabinets, cars, trucks, orchestra shells, etc.).
• To make sure that the door is not propped open in a manner that would prevent it from being closed automatically (this means NO stage weights, NO chairs, NO desks, NO microphone stands, NO speakers, NO road cases, NO scenery, NO flag pole bases, NO . . . well, you should get the point).
• To see if the automatic door closer hardware actually automatically closes the door (this is how you keep the smoke-in, air out, and keep the fire from spreading).  Disconnected, clamped, maladjusted, or broken closers must be repaired or replaced.
• To  make sure that 'extra things' haven't been added to the door like kick-down door props (no, you cannot add these to Fire Doors!) or bailing wire to tie the door open.
• And to check that the magnetic door release latch, if any, is properly working in conjunction with the Fire Alarm System (yes, this is the only legal way to prop a door open).

Doors through fire walls

An all too common sight around theatres is doors propped-open with counterweights from the stage rigging system.

Occasionally they are propped open with other things, in this case: a flag pole base. Sometimes fold-down door props are added to the door: And I've seen doors held open with bailing wire tied-off to a nearby object.

Other common fire door violations are taping over the door strike (latch) so that it won't keep the door closed against the atmospheric pressures generated by a fire.
I've also seen automatic closure devices disabled or removed so that the door won't be pulled closed.

The reason you should not do this is simple: The walls around the stage, and dividing other major portions of the building, are fire-rated partitions, typically rated for about 2 hours. The doors that penetrate the fire walls are also fire-rated. If there is a fire in the building, the doors act as a fire barrier AND as a means to cut-off the flow of air to the fire. If the door is propped open, it cannot protect the occupants or the building.

Below is a common solution to this problem: Notice the two small devices near the top of the doors and along the walls flanking the doors. These are electomagnetically operated door holders. They are deactivated by a switch on the wall so that the doors can be closed, and they are automatically deactivated by the Fire Alarm System in the event of a fire.

Teach your students and staff about Fire Doors and make sure that they don't disable or bypass this valuable feature just for the convenience of reducing door opening and closing tasks.  If the door is mechanically loud and clunky, look at having the mechanism(s) repaired or replaced; and teach your crew how to go through a door stealthly, like a ninja!  Not everything requires brute-force!