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Building Code Madness- Responder's Beware!
Whilst doing some audit work for a client recently, I came across an interesting design flaw in a Nursing Home which struck me as absolute madness.
In this facility, there are various Smoke Doors which obviously compartmentize the area to provide protection to other parts of the facility and other residents.
However if you look at the picture above, you'll notice that the Smoke Door is adjacent to an open counter which has a roller shutter for security. The roller shutter is not smoke or fire rated, doesn't seal properly to provide protection, etc.
Whilst I agree it will provide some (but very limited) protection, it struck me as a crazy set up, which upon making enquiries had been in place since the facility was built- which fool designed this and worse still, which fool of an inspector gave them a Certificate of Occupancy?
Interestingly, about 3 days after this first photo, we went to another Nurisng Home owned by the same organisation and came across a second set up that was identical however it featured a sliding counter door, not a roller (See below)
As first responders, we need to be aware of these issues as we may think we have people in a safe location while we handle an incident in one part of the facility, when in fact they're no safer.
This clearly highlights the importance of pre-planning, walk through's, building inspections, etc
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Capt.Alex Arnold on
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Excellent find, lutan! I'll bet that I have seen something similiar to that at an office that I was just recently at. When I go back there I am going to take a closer look. Once again nice find.
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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Thanks Alex.
One of the unit managers made an interesting comment that the facility had been in palce for 10 years and had been accreditted to operate every year which consisted of inspections and audits on everything from paperwork, facilities, etc and no auditir had picked it up, whereas I picked it up with about 2 minutes of walking in.
I think it's given them some food for thought on how they now handle evacuations. (Previosuly they were always pushing due to limitted staff numbers and high resident numbers, to get them behind a smoke or fire door as the first option to buy them additional time)
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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Thanks Luke - I think I'll be arranging a check of our local nursing homes...
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Tony, I'll touch base next with you and have a chat about some of the other issues and concerns found....
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Permalink Reply by Aussie_Wildfire on
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Lutan you bum
what a pain in the bumyou are. My local nursing home has a LT from the local brigade and he is the fire and maintenance man
not only that but the 2 offices look like yours AND my wife is a assitant unit manager.
I think i will have a good look at Stawell
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