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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Author
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Topic: Movie theatre fined for locked emergency doors
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 08-25-2013 03:56 PM
quote: Mark Hajducki
It is strange how much the codes vary between country. In another thread I was surprised to find that weekly fire alarm testing was not required in the USA, as was testing the safety curtain daily in live theatres.
In general, testing a fire alarm in the US requires the cooperation of the local fire department. I don't know how it works in the UK, but a US fire alarm system in a commercial building does more than just trigger bells or horns--it typically signals the fire department, either through an alarm company or by triggering a Gamewell master box that is connected to the city or town fire alarm telegraph system. Testing this sort of system typically requires that a fireman and/or alarm company service man be present.
There is no way that a local fire department could deal with a test alarm from every commercial building in the town once per day. It would completely overwhelm them and would increase the response time for real alarms.
Thus, fire alarms in commercial buildings are typically tested semi-annually. There are plenty of internal self-tests in a modern alarm system and a "trouble" indication will be given (typically on a lighted panel) if something goes wrong in the meantime.
Fire extinguishers are typically inspected and tagged every year.
The staggered evacuation thing is becoming popular in the US for some reason. At my last job, I worked in an office building that had this sort of system. The alarm would sound on all floors, and a barely-audible synthesized voice would call for an evacuation on the floor where the alarm was triggered and the floors immediately above and below that floor. On other floors, it would tell people to stay in place and await further instructions. I realize that the purpose of this was to avoid congestion in the stairways, but the whole thing always made me nervous, and I am not sure that I would want to stay put in a burning building even if the synthesized voice told me to do that.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 08-25-2013 09:06 PM
quote: Farnk Cox
"Remove bolts, padlocks and security devices from fire exits"? Really? It's illegal to have a lock, bolt or padlock on a fire exit door here. Even if nobody is in the building.
As Mark points out, the norm in England and Wales (Scots law differs in many ways from that in England, Wales and NI) is that it's OK to have fire exits secured, as long as no customers are in the auditoria and staff have adequate emergency exit provision (and are trained in its use). In the theatres I worked, chaining up the emergency exits was pretty much the last thing that was done by the last person to leave the building at the end of the night, and the first thing that was done by the manager or projectionist who arrived to open up.
The English law with regard to cinema regulation is a bit weird, to put it mildly. It has its origins in the Cinematograph Act 1909, which was essentially a kneejerk response to some nitrate fires and other nasty accidents caused by the hasty (and often jerrybuilt) conversion of stores, shops and other buildings into movie theatres. It set out certain safety requirements in broad terms, but put the responsibility for enforcing them onto town and city councils. The basic system that act put in place is still the one that operates today: in order to have the legal right to charge members of the public money to watch movies on your business premises, you need a licence from your local authority. That is granted after they come and inspect you, and one of the things that happens as part of that inspection is that the fire officer (a professional firefighter but who is acting on behalf of the council) visits the place and satisfies him/herself that your fire prevention (and first-line firefighting) infrastructure is up to scratch, and that staff are properly trained. If (s)he isn't satisfied, the council won't give you a licence (or will pull an existing one).
But some fire officers are more punctilious than others. I've been present at inspections where the place has been gone over with a fine tooth comb, right down to demands to inspect maintenance records for the extinguishers and alarm system, to a ten-minute walkaround, one or two questions, yeah, you're OK and I'm outta here.
Scott - some alarm systems here do make an automated phone call to the fire brigade if they are not reset after a set time has elapsed (e.g. 90 seconds), but on the systems I've worked with this function can be disabled for testing purposes.
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Pete Naples
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1565
From: Dunfermline, Scotland
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 08-28-2013 07:11 AM
You'd be amazed at the number of DLP installations that aren't even connected to fire alarm for automated shutdown here, because the people who 'installed' the equipment don't understand things like relays, or didn't have the necessary bits to interface the 24v fire alarm with GPI on the server, or simply didn't have time. Even better are the places where unless the system is running content from the server, nothing happens on fire alarm. This is why my automation interface has a dedicated fire alarm input which is totally independent of the server. So if alternative content is running, you still have some form of shutdown on fire alarm activation. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
Once upon a time, not so long ago, it was not uncommon in smaller cinemas, say 1-3 screens, to have a system of hooks to hang the fire door chains on. Either in a very prominent place, such as beside the projectors so the staff would see straight away they were still on the doors, or as I have installed at some places, on hooks with electrical interlock. Chains not on hooks = projectors will not run.
I've never actually seen any kind of electrical fire door locking system which unlocks the doors on fire, what we see here are magnetic devices which are holding doors open, that release on fire, thereby slowing the spread of fire through the building.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 08-28-2013 03:21 PM
quote: Leo Enticknap
That's because (I was told) if you leave a maglock energised without releasing it for too long, it retains its magnetic properties after the power is switched off. There are maglock fire doors in our building at the university which release and close if the alarm is activated, which we're under instructions from Estates Service to release and close manually over each weekend to prevent this from happening. If you just leave them on 24/7 for weeks and weeks, they will no longer lose their magnetic 'stickiness' when the power is cut.
I'm somewhat skeptical that you'd ever get strong enough residual magnetism to prevent a door from being opened with a good shove, but I'm prepared to be convinced otherwise. However, that was not what happened in this case, the door released as soon as the maglock was turned off with a key. Of course, most people would not have had the switch key, it's a special one, not the standard 'fish' one; looks like a filing cabinet key. Also, even if you have the key you wouldn't want to grope around in a smoke-filled corridor lit only with emergency lighting to find the switch to put it in. There's another door next to the one in question which should not release on the fire alarm, it's not part of an escape route and leads into our server room where you wouldn't want people to go, and from which there's no other means of escape. I suspect that the lock had either been wired up wrongly in error, or more likely these days, mis-programmed. These things seem to be software controlled these days.
These locks don't even release if power is lost; there's a lead-acid battery in each controller box which keeps them energised for some time, I think it's at least an hour, without mains power.
These things are installed by security companies who seem to be more concerned with keeping people out of places than with letting them get out in an emergency. I have no objection to the small maglocks which hold a door open and release to allow it to close for smoke control, but I don't like the large ones which hold a door closed, and are supposed to release it to open in an emergency.
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