Lock release for security building

[Guest Mark Will]

Our customer has a hostel with 6 floors providing accommodation to 100+ people. There are secure corridors to each cluster of rooms on each floor as well as secure rehabilitation centre, female only areas etc. All secure doors are linked to the fire alarm so when the alarm is activated the mag locks are released. At each secure door there are green re-settable break glass points. Unfortunately these are abused and doors are left unlocked following activation of the buttons. Alarmed covers have been used but these are ignored / broken and with 6 floors to cover they are not heard by staff. The customer does not wish to go down the exit guard alarm route, rather, they wish to stop the problem.

As the fire alarm drops the lock on activation is it necessary under current legislation to have the green breakglass points ? Please can you suggest a solution as I'm sure this is a common occurrence?

Thanks

[Tom Sutton]

This is an old perennial and there are many threads on FireNet forum on this subject. If an escape door is fitted with a mag lock, linked to the fire alarm, then a manual override is required (green box) to comply with the British Standard. I understand that the fire alarm system can be configured so if a green box is actuated a fault will be indicated on the fire alarm panel. This may be a solution providing the fire alarm panel is monitored 24/7.

Check out http://fire.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1839.0 and there re many other too.

[Safelincs]

Hi Tom

I guess the only alternative is to treat the doors as non existent and to carry out a fire risk assessment for each of the now insulated areas. Do they have primary and secondary escape routes and so on.

Harry

[Tom Sutton]

Hi Harry

It seems a simple question but to give a full answer you would have to know very much more about the situation and I personally would need physical inspection to be certain, making assumptions is a dangerous thing. However there are usually parts you can give definitive response to, for example you can say if an escape door is fitted with a lock in the direction of escape, then it has to be operable from the escape side with out the need of a key and therefore needs a manual override. A green box is considered to be a manual override, there are others, and in some case this is not desirable but to find a solution is very difficult, mainly because it flies in the face of the principles of means of escape from fire.

​Coincidentally this applies to most online questions and most times to give a definitive answer is impossible but I find directing the enquirer to where the answer can be found like guides, standards and such is the best solution.

Tom

[Tom Sutton]

Further to my above comments I wish to add that security and Means of Escape can come into conflict.

If the aims are to prevent intruders from gaining access from the outside to the inside of the premises then there are plenty of solutions available. The problems arise when the aims are to prevent unauthorised persons from getting out of the premises by means designed for means of escape from fire only.

For a long time the use of panic bars or manual overrides for locks have caused problems and in my experience there is no way of preventing these doors from being used for unauthorised purposes but you can provide a warning that these doors are being used and therefore you are able to respond immediately.