There is a stairwell at the East end of the building in which I work. A couple of months ago I noticed that the door at the bottom of the stairwell has a handle that you must grab and turn to open the door, and that the door opens inward toward the stairs. I thought that all emergency exits had to have doors that open outward, and that they had to have those emergency bars against which you just have to push to open the door. I contacted the site safety manager to see if he were aware of it.

Several weeks later I got a phone call telling me that everything was fine because the door at the base of the stairs is not the emergency exit: to get to the emergency exit you go to the left down a hall, then to the right down another hall, then outside through a properly-designed emergency exit door.

I went to check out this new information and, sure enough!, there was that hallway about which I'd been told. And there was an "Exit" sign. It was unlit, and near enough to the door on the right that it wasn't at all obvious that it meant "go left". And there were chairs all about the entrance to the hallway, blocking about half of it. I went down the hallway and around the corner to the right and, sure enough!, there was that properly-designed emergency exit door, just past the stacked-up tables that blocked 2/3 of the hallway.

I sent another e-mail to the site safety manager.

Two days later the "Exit" sign was lit, thenchairs and tables were gone, and there was a sign on the door at the base of the stairs that read "This is not an EMERGENCY EXIT".

I'm still not sure why the sign telling you that it's not an emergency exit emphasizes the "emergency exit" part and not the "not" part. And I'll bet that in an emergency people will rush down the stairs and try to go out through the door that they always use: the non-emergency-exit door.

 

And you haven't called the fire inspector why?

I'm all for being a team player at work, you know; keep costs down and productivity high. But, when an employer can't keep a safe workplace after having something (like an improperly marked emergency exit) brought to their attention, I have no problem blowing the whistle.

 

When I sent the e-mails I said that I was amazed that the fire inspector had approved the arrangement. I was fully prepared to call if the situation weren't fixed, but I thought that it would be better to let them do the right thing on their own. Thank goodness they did.

 

Interesting. I would have thought that they would fix the problem as well. Does that mean you have no emergency exits?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by gomarlins3
Interesting.

 

I'd bet that any outside door has to open outward.