Firefighter Jay Schlossareck from Hackensack (NJ) Fire sent in these photos they took while checking out their response area. The building is a two story multi-residential structure with some parking under a second floor overhang. Frequently, on a set-up like this, you’ll find the overhang sprinkled to protect from the inevitable car fire. Well here is another option that we probably haven’t seen before. These windows are protected by “fire doors†on fusible links. If a fire were to occur, the heat will activate the fusible link and the roll up will slam shut to prevent the fire from extending into the structure. Good in theory…We guess.
This design would be just fine if the only thing that could possibly happen would be an extending car (or other exterior) fire. What about the interior room and contents fire that auto-vents? The fire would activate the fusible link and close the door on us. The photo below shows a close-up of the fusible link. In this set-up there is only one fusible link in the middle of the window. It would not be un-common to have multiple links all connected by an activation chain.
What if the OVM wasn’t paying attention and vented this window from the outside without disabling or blocking the mechanism first? The fire would vent, offer some relief, the door could slam shut, and depending on the amount of fire, conditions could deteriorate inside RAPIDLY!
What if the fire was gaining on you and you ended up egressing out of that window? You take the window, bail out, and before the remainder of the crew bails out… The door slams shut. The bottom line is that these devices need to be “safed up†or disabled in some way as soon as possible.
Sounds like a job for that proactive RIT team…
WOW, thats a great find. Something to put on a prefire plan and make sure crews secure.
Sometimes people do not fully think out a “sounds great” idea. I am sure those were installed due to a fire code or fire inspector mandating it.
Thanks for sharing that with us.
Stay safe.
~Egan
Thanks for the photos and great review of the benefit from car fire and the challenges of room and contents. Obviously if you have a tool with you (like a trash hook) can protect the egress with that but do you think a vise grip in the track would hold that door up or would the door blow through it? just asking how quickly this door would close and with how much force?
Hay this brings up a question I have been kicking around for a while, how does your depmarent handle fusible links?
Thanks in advance for all your input
I have similar questions – what is the weight of these doors? How fast are the closing once activated? How many windows are protected like this?
My first thoughts on securing them so they don’t close was the use of vice-grips in the channel….however if you have multiple windows with these devices, exactly how far are you going to have to go to collect enough vice-grips to do the job (same with hooks).
Second thoughts would be that of cutting the link (lowering the door) and then cutting holes in the metal…much more time consuming, much more expensive, but much more permanent and there is no risk of kicking a device such as a hook or vice-grips out.
There are several groups of four windows as shown in the pictures. I would say there is a total of 5 roll down doors protecting every window on the first floor in the rear of this building. OVM and FAST team is gonna have to secure them or disable them for egress as well as ventilation. Also, what would this do to a delayed notificaion of a fire? I mean it vents or a window is left open the door drops now could you be facing a backdraft situation on arrival?
I can’t really tell from the picture…but it might be possible to bend the track that the gate rides in on both sides to prevent the gate from operating.
Could you cut a gap in the rail. so if the door closes it falls out of the track. then it would just flap there like a blanket. Maybe there is something in the drum to cut to prevent it from rolling down. ???
Jay, a few guys here are mentioning “tracks”. Can you confirm that this particular version of this device operates in tracks?
It’s hard to tell from the photo ( plus I’m using outdated optics that are well past their “best before” date 😉 ) but it looks like the angle iron shown is more for weight bearing that anything else.
Of course if these “curtains” just hang under their own weight (not in a track) then they are less of a problem.
Thanx in advance.
Fits
looks as if you use the heavy irons and shear the heads off the bolts on the angle iron running between the tracks on the bottom. it looks like a stop bar. easily repaired and should the door come down (or cut it down) it will fall to the ground.
What about a crew inside performing a Vent Enter Search prior to hose lines being put into place? What if the heat exiting the window caused the fusable link to activate and trap the inside crew that is without a hose line? This is why we pre-fire plan. Stay safe and train hard!
TC