The Importance of a Fire Door in One Image

Photo Credit: iDigHardware: Scott Strassburg

Fire Marshall Scott Strassburg shared a series of harrowing images that illustrate just how important it is to have a fire door.

Apparently, this particular fire began as a cooking fire in someone’s apartment where it then jumped to the cabinets and worked its way through the hallway and surrounding units.

As the tenant escaped from the apartment where the fire began, the door between the apartment and the corridor was left open, allowing the fire to spread into the corridor.

At the ends of the corridor, there were two fire doors – one leading to a stairwell (very close to the apartment where the fire originated) and one that was a horizontal exit leading to more apartments. These doors were both closed and latched, and prevented the fire from compromising the egress routes from other floors.

Photo Credit: iDigHardware: Scott Strassburg

Photo Credit: iDigHardware: Scott Strassburg

Photo Credit: iDigHardware: Scott Strassburg

Photo Credit: iDigHardware: Scott Strassburg

The apartments which opened onto this corridor were directly affected by the position of the entrance doors – when doors were left open during the evacuation and subsequent firefighting efforts, the fire was able to spread into the apartment. When doors were closed and latched, the apartment suffered much less damage. If building occupants were behind these closed doors, the doors would have offered some protection from the smoke and flames – this is very important since the egress route from these apartments was not usable.