Fire Exit Signs

I would expect the direction to go if one were wishing to exit, would be to the left. Whether that means stairs or not, is not indicated by that sign ... only that the direction to go in order to exit, is to the left.

Still using that style of sign? Locally, the international symbol is being used ... it's a whole lot clearer. There's different versions of this sign for left, right, and straight-ahead.

BrianPetersen said:

I would expect the direction to go if one were wishing to exit, would be to the left. Whether that means stairs or not, is not indicated by that sign ... only that the direction to go in order to exit, is to the left.

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That's what I thought. It's saying exit, but not clarifying whether this is a courtesy sign, telling people how to exit to leave the building under non-emergency conditions, or a fire exit sign, which should direct to stairs, not elevators. This sign pointed to a dead end with an elevator bank, a locked door (which looked like it may have been an exit to a removed stairway), and two bathrooms.

BrianPetersen said:

Still using that style of sign? Locally, the international symbol is being used ...

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This building was probably built more than 25 years ago. It was clearly renovated about 5-10 years ago, with an airier atrium-like entrance, but this part of the building (the sign) was not touched.

My problem with the Running Man sign is that (1) we were always told to "Walk, not run, to the nearest exit" during school fire drills (has the advice changed?), and (2) I still prefer some words on signs to accompany icons. Even non-English speakers would quickly learn important words like "EXIT". I still remember "SORTIE" signs on the interstate in Canada. There's no time to decode icons in an emergency. People often misinterpret icons (e.g. "the three little lines", "the nine dots"), and don't grasp the abstracted meaning they intend to convey.

The obvious issue is that the sign is in English, while the running man is ostensibly understandable by anyone speaking any language.

The fact that it does not point to stairs is problematic, since that is one of the two possible needs for the sign, a general "this way out" as well as for emergency use, such as fires, power failures, and earthquakes, all of which could be fatal if one took an elevator instead of the stairs.

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The new signs are in green where red may be more visable. I've been in a smoke tower before and when the smoke is being generated, you can hardly see your hand infront of you... had to chase down the 'burning tray' and 'knock it down'. Great fun, but a dangerous job for a real one.

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In the United States, this sign should point the way to the emergency egress. If the only thing in this direction is the elevator, the building is in violation of the fire code. If you were just a member of the public (and not working on a project in the building) you should send a message to the local fire marshal. It looks like a nice building; they can certainly afford to fix this.

I would expect that when I turn this corner, I would then see the next emergency exit sign.
This is very old school signage and should be updated.
Our eyes are more sensitive to green than red; besides we are going to a safe place so green is logical.
It really helps if you know what you are looking for, I would assume a door to a stairwell but you never know.
I do like the low-to-the-floor signs also, a lot easier to see when you are trying to crawl under smoke.


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flight7 said:

In the United States, this sign should point the way to the emergency egress. If the only thing in this direction is the elevator, the building is in violation of the fire code. If you were just a member of the public (and not working on a project in the building) you should send a message to the local fire marshal. It looks like a nice building; they can certainly afford to fix this.

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That is what I thought, but I was not 100% certain without checking the Life Safety Code. Here is what I found when I turned the corner,

Elevators and a locked door (may have been the entrance to the exit stair before renovation)



Restrooms:



That's all.

Here is a view of the first and second floors in the area below the locked door.



It looks like this building was renovated about 10 years ago to make a more atrium-like, open, and welcoming entry. My guess is that they eliminated stairs in this area to provide the open space on the first and second floors. I found an exit stair at the end of the angled hallway in the first photo I posted yesterday. There is a symmetrical exit stair at the other end of the angled hallway, which you can just see behind the tinted glass in this photo:



I may ask my spouse to make the report to the Fire Marshal, just as a "member of the public" to keep my professional status and opinions out of this. I also don't want the hospital to get mad at me. He generally goes to a different medical corporation's building and neither of us has been hospitalized in decades.

Before you involve the fire marshall.. have you actually spoken to someone there and mentioned this to them?

Seems like giving them a chance to fix it, along with any other things that need attention, is better for everyone involved than sicing the fire marshal on them. Fire marshals never, ever show up to look at just one thing. It's possible (if it were my JHA... almost certain) the marshal is going to walk the whole building and find a whole bunch of other stuff and create a major problem for your client.

With that additional information, I agree, that sign is not as per fire code. It needs to point towards stairs rather than elevators, and most certainly not to a locked door or to any door without a window in it to allow viewing of what's on the other side of it (i.e. stairs ... or dense smoke ... or fire). If it points to a door at all, that door should have an additional exit sign above it indicating that this door is the way to the exit. (And that door probably has to be a fire door - and not even possible to lock.)

Fire maarshal needs a look ... but this shouldn't be expensive to fix. Definitely needs to be fixed, though.

SwinnyGG said:

Before you involve the fire marshal.. have you actually spoken to someone there and mentioned this to them?

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That's a good point, and definitely what I was starting to think about regarding this situation. I will contact the manager of the building to let them know that the exit signs are not in compliance with the Life Safety Code.

Now to find the name of the manager of the building.

NOLAscience said:

Now to find the name of the manager of the building.

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That problem is why I brought up the fire marshal in the first place. It seems that whenever I try to be "helpful" it turns into a big time suck. I have become cranky in my not-quite-old age.

Someone comes in to check our fire extinguishers monthly; not sure if they do anything else.

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IRstuff said:

Someone comes in to check our fire extinguishers monthly; not sure if they do anything else.

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It is highly likely that this person is being paid to check fire extinguishers, and is only looking at stuff that someone's paying them to look at!

Look at the inspection notice in the elevator, often they will say 'on file at xxxxxxxx'.


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