Stan Bey from Memphis Engine 15 sent in these picture he found of another hidden playroom. apparently these playrooms are more common than we think. He found the pictures while checking out a woodworking website. In this project, the homeowner wanted to take advantage of some unused attic space and converted it into a child’s playroom. The playroom is hidden behind a bookshelf door, and actually has steps inside the door to access the main area of the play room. Another interesting thing about the playroom is that it actually has two different levels in the room, with a slide connecting the two levels. We have shown hidden playrooms before, and always need to keep them in mind when performing a search. Unfortunately, without the homeowner advising us of its presence and how to access it, our odds of finding in may be minimal.
As you can see below the slide can be seen in the right side of the photo and the step down to the lower level of the playroom and be seen on the left.
i wish we had one of these in the station.
Probably wouldn’t find that one until overhaul.
also think about some much older homes in wealthy areas that may have servant spaces that are hidden from the rest of the home.
The building department and inspectors should know better than to sign off on this hidden death trap.
FF42, who says the bulding inspector and or department even know about it. Beyond that, it’s probably not classified as a living space, so as long as everything is to code, they are not going to care about us.
Can you imagine what a pain it would be to try to get one of those tripple decker cribs up those stairs…good find
Playroom. Sure. But disguising the door? God forbid a child use this playroom to seek refuge from a fire.
May also double as a panic room- regardless, finding that without knowing it exists is a substantial challenge.
Ok, so flame me if you will, but I watched the Extreme Makeover Home Edition last night with the Mrs. They built a similar playroom for the child accessed through a wall in the bedroom that resembled a mural with a barn door. The barn door once opened revealed a fairly large playroom. One point to note on that one however was that a window was present in the room meaning access and egress should be accounted for once the window was discovered. Challenging, but could be overcome. This child playroom, pictured above, would surely be missed on the primary and possibly secondary. Gotta look for those void spaces!!!
I would really be stunned if this would be found on primary, secondary or even overhaul with a hidden door.
I always search outward opening bookcases, but not until the secondary search. That would be alot of fun for the kids but not for us. Thanks Stan
and how would we know that bookcase even moves? many of them have no visible hinge.
I’m pretty sure it opens when you tilt the bust of George Washington on the hall table.
I totally agree that this would be hard to find in smoke, fire, etc, etc, blah, blah….But if you size up from the outside, it’s gonna tell you there’s an extra story. Most of the houses Ive been in, the basement, interior, and attic stair are usually one on top of the other. This is no different. If you look at the door to the left of the bookcase, it appears to be another room. Im guessing just inside that door is a wall. Now, the space between that wall and the exterior wall is setting off the VOID alarm in my head. Beings that that space is directely over the interior stairs…that’s almost gotta be the way to the third floor. If you dont see a door or a hatch there somewhere, poke a hole. I hope this made sense. If nothing else, just looking at this, you’d have to expect knee walls…but I could seriously go on about size up and house layout all day, but I wont.
4 man aka hook, city no we don’t need that. . .
Have to agree with Dman ..size up should tell you there is an attic…but once you are in there how do you find it? yep agree again if we dont recognize anything and we need to see up there we are gonna put a hole somwhere..or grab the homeowner for the secondary and say how the hell do we get to the attic space…
Looking at the photo and seeing the window I am assuming this window is visible from the exterior. If it faces exposure 1 (or A) The Ladder Company Chauffer “should” be placing the apparatus in a position to access the upper most floor. In this case the attic is not a bedroom. We need to look at occupancies from many dimensions. If manpower allows, having a member do a 360 and reporting smoke and fire conditions as well as basement access, barred windows and attic living spaces we will know there is an attic and that it must be searched. Especially in balloon frames.
Have been to numerous “basement” jobs where the first and second floors were clean. Attic had heavy smoke as well as fire pushing under pressure. This is a must find area agreed. It may be accessed from OUTSIDE via the TL basket or aerial and yes via the 35ft. portable ladder. Communication between Inside and Outside positioned FF’s is a MUST. It has helped find lost / disoriented members, hidden pockets of fire, setbacks, dormers, additions, attached garages. Having these finds forwarded to the IC, Engine Company, Inside Team, will make the continuing Size-Up easier to address.
Think outside the box brothers.
RSFDNY.
Good find fellas. I can definitely see missing this on the interior. I can also see missing this from the exterior. While to many, that window may scream “living space”, our slice of Florida is quickly becoming the land of the cosmetic dormer…I wouldn’t be surprised if they started putting them on trailers soon 🙂
Anyway, while many are quickly distinguished as such (you can usually see the shingles through the window), the classier builders are slightly tinting the windows, making it harder to tell without getting right up to it. I’m not saying not to check it, only that exterior features don’t always indicate what you think.
We had a similar homeowners request through proper channels (code office. The owner wanted to build an attic playroom for his two small children. After a lengthy discussion he saw the hazards it posed. In the end they did it but were required to install proper egress windows and interconnected smoke alarms throughout to ensure early notification. Of course they did not intend to hide the entrance either!
Unless there’s another window or way out of the pictured attic it fails to be Life Safety Code compliant. Every habitable room must have two means of egress, one can be by window but the operable area must be a min. of 5.7 sqft. The space is considered habitable by most standards, as that’s what it’s designed for. This would be an easy fix in my ‘burg.
Antiqufirelt,
Props to those homeowners you mentioned for consulting with the code office. Glad to see a reasonable compromise was reached, homeowner still got what they wanted but were made aware of things they didn’t know.
Coming to this discussion a little late but i am just curious.
I dont have small children but i do get a kick out of hidden door ways and passages in houses. Would a prudent method of safety be to have the concealed doors/accessways triggered to open in the event that a smoke detector was activated in the vicinity? Would this assist in the search of a house in the event of a fire?