Fire Safety During the Ongoing Pandemic

As we start May we will begin to see businesses begin or continue to operate with new safety procedures in response to COVID-19. We here at B&F Construction Code Services, Inc. to keep in mind a few items to ensure we don’t accidentally create a secondary fire safety hazard.

Egress

While many companies are limiting people within their buildings how they go about setting up and controlling these access points is very important. A store may be experiencing significantly fewer patrons at this time in their store this does not give the operator license to block exits. Egress design is not limited to just how many people are within a building or space, but the distance to travel out of the building is an important factor. Without prior approval exits should not be blocked or barricaded, multiple fire marshals have already responded to complaints [1]. No matter, egress to the outside must be maintained.

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Thumb Turn Locks

Many offices and retail that was once open to the public is now operating with limited or no public access. To facilitate this the doors are locked, depending on the door hardware this may not be permitted. Thumb turn (as pictured above) door hardware on an egress path is not permitted to be locked with the building is occupied. These locks are typically found on older building and smaller establishments at the main entrance (as permitted by IBC & IFC 2018 1010.1.9.4).

courtesy of Wikipedia

Fire Rated Doors

Another consideration is inside building we are all looking at reducing the common surfaces we must touch. Fire dated doors can separate different hazards, sections of buildings, or protect egress paths into stairways. Rated doors will be equipped with a label like the one shown above, these doors should not be propped open.