Culver City (Calif.) Approves Single Exit Stairway in Multifamily Bldgs.

[Joe.B]

Maybe I'll change my name to Marshall, then apply to be a marshal, then I could be marshal Marshall.

 

[arwat23]

And the contrast….coconut grove had one exit…triangle shirtwaist had restricted egress…our lady of angels had a compromised egress….

There were circumstances outside of the egress issues that contributed to how deadly those fire were.

Cocoanut grove had a single revolving main entry (not a hinged door) and had extremely flammable decorations. They had no license to operate, the owners didn't obtain permits for alterations, and the fire inspection 10 days prior to the fire didn't catch any issues. While having one exit certainly contributed to the loss of life, it was by no means was the only cause of the number of deaths. Hell, if they had a hinged door as their one exit, it probably would have reduced the number of deaths substantially.

Triangle Shirtwaist had multiple exits on each floor, but no audible alarm. One of the exits was locked to prevent employees from stealing items / keep union organizers out. The foreman who had the key to unlock the door fled before unlocking it. There were still multiple exits available, and even then, the door shouldn't have been locked. That's a failure on the owner, not on code or construction.

Our Lady of Angels' interior and roof was entirely made of wood materials. The only non-combustible part was the exterior walls. There were only two unmarked fire alarms for the entire school. The floors were coated multiple times in highly flammable varnish. Classrooms were packed with more students than what would be allowed in a typical classroom. Each classroom door had a glass transom, which would have allowed fire and smoke to easily enter the rooms very easily. The fire alarms didn't rig for multiple minutes after the hallways were filled with smoke. Multiple doors that could have delayed fire from spreading were chained open. The Fire Department arrived after around 40 minutes of the fire raging unchecked. To be honest, most info I see is about how much the building was susceptible to fires, nothing much about the number of exits or that any exits were compromised. Maybe I missed something?

 

[steveray]

I had a Fire Marshal Bill once....And so did we...

 

[steveray]

There were circumstances outside of the egress issues that contributed to how deadly those fire were.

Cocoanut grove had a single revolving main entry While having one exit certainly contributed to the loss of life,

Triangle Shirtwaist had multiple exits on each floor. One of the exits was locked to prevent employees from stealing items / keep union organizers out. The foreman who had the key to unlock the door fled before unlocking it. There were still multiple exits available, and even then, the door shouldn't have been locked.

Our Lady of Angels' The fire alarms didn't rig for multiple minutes after the hallways were filled with smoke.

To be honest, most info I see is about how much the building was susceptible to fires, nothing much about the number of exits or that any exits were compromised. Maybe I missed something?

They all had compromised egress.....By locks or smoke or whatever.....And we could layer on the Station nightclub.....There is almost always 2 or 3 things leading up to a tragedy....Which is part of the reason for redundant safety provisions...