Five Exit Door Violations We Find in Winnipeg Businesses Every Week

Nobody sets out to create a life-safety hazard. Every egress violation we find was installed by somebody solving a genuine problem: staff propping the fire exit, stock walking out the back, a door that would not stay shut. The solution chosen just happened to be one that could kill people and will certainly fail an inspection.

Here are the five we encounter most often across Winnipeg, and what to do instead.

1. The chained or padlocked exit door

A chain through the panic bars of a fire exit is the most serious violation in commercial buildings, and we still find it regularly — usually in retail and restaurants, usually to stop theft or unauthorised entry through a rear door.

An egress door must open from the inside with a single motion, with no key, no tool and no special knowledge. A chain fails every part of that requirement, and in a fire it turns an exit into a trap.

The compliant answer is delayed egress hardware where the occupancy classification allows it, combined with a local exit alarm. The door still opens — after a fifteen or thirty second delay with an audible alarm, and immediately on fire alarm activation. Loss prevention gets its deterrent, and nobody dies for it.

2. The deadbolt added above the panic bar

A thumbturn or key deadbolt fitted above an exit device is the second most common finding. It defeats the entire point of the panic bar, because leaving now requires two separate actions instead of one, and in a dark, smoke-filled room the second action will not happen.

If the exit device is not securing the door adequately, the device is wrong for the opening — vertical rod hardware, a better latch or frame reinforcement solves it. Adding a deadbolt does not.

3. Storage stacked against the exit

Not a hardware problem, but the deficiency we photograph most: pallets, stock, bins and Christmas decorations stacked in front of an exit door or blocking the path to it. Egress includes the route, not just the door.

The other half of this is the exit that opens onto a snow bank. In Winnipeg, exit doors must be kept clear through the winter — a door that cannot swing because of accumulated snow and ice is as blocked as one behind a pallet stack.

4. Exit devices dogged on fire-rated doors

Dogging holds the panic bar depressed so the door pushes open freely, which is convenient during business hours on a non-rated door. On a fire-rated opening it is prohibited, because the door must latch to hold its rating and contain a fire.

Fire-rated exit devices are manufactured without mechanical dogging for this reason. If you have a rated door with a dogged device on it, the wrong device was installed. Where free passage during business hours is genuinely needed, an electric latch retraction device tied into the fire alarm provides it compliantly.

5. Doors that swing the wrong way

In rooms above certain occupant loads, exit doors must swing in the direction of egress — outward. We find inward-swinging doors on assembly spaces, meeting rooms and back-of-house areas whose use changed over the years without anyone revisiting the hardware.

This one is more expensive to fix because it involves the door, the frame and the hardware together. It is also not optional, and it is the kind of item that appears on an inspection report with a short deadline attached.

What to do before an inspector finds it

If you find something on that list, it can generally be corrected quickly and for far less than people expect. Correcting it before an inspector writes an order is always cheaper than correcting it afterwards — and the reason to do it has nothing to do with inspectors.

• Walk every exit route in your building as if you were leaving in an emergency
• Confirm each exit door opens with a single motion from the inside, with nothing added to the hardware
• Check that exit paths are clear inside and out, including snow clearance in winter
• Verify rated doors latch fully and are not dogged
• Test exit devices and closers regularly, and adjust them seasonally