Fire Door

The fire door.

The internal door, seen in the previous two postings, is meant for heavy usage because it has a self-closing mechanism at the top of the door. Usage of the door is also made easier because there is no handle on one side which indicates it should be pushed when being approached from that side; additionally there is a decent sized pane of glass which ensures that people do not open the door in someone else’s face. The middle photo also shows that the door can be widened in order to allow access for large items that will not go through the normal-sized door-opening; the bolts at the top and bottom of the door indicate that those with authority within the establishment are permitted to open the doors wider as and when required, and for the most part only the single normal sized door will be needed to cope with human traffic throughout the day. Aside from the bolts, there is no authority that comes in to play with the internal door, because there are no locks and so forth. In the last photograph above, the ‘Fire Door’, authority and control over the use of the door are extremely evident. Instructions are given on how to go about opening the door; this in itself is an unusual feature because most doors do not have instructions explaining how they open. The fire door is the one door which is not permitted to be opened and used in the same manner as a regular internal or external door. This controlling feature in society is put in place from the age of childhood, and is so effective that even when a fire drill/alarm is sounded many will not use the fire door for the purpose for which it is intended. The authoritarian control over the use of the fire door is so deeply ingrained in to people’s psyche that the original thought pattern has to be overwritten by seeing the door being used in order for people to understand that the fire door may indeed be used during a fire drill; this odd phenomenon has been personally witnessed. The degree of control that exists, in relation to when the fire door can be used and to who is permitted to use it, could be considered a serious safety issue in itself; but since fire doors are seldom used and are also considered out of bounds for everyday usage, it stands to reason that the original ‘rules’ of not being permitted to use a fire door for access will remain as the voice of authority instructing people to find an alternative exit, possibly even during a fire, because in a sense the doors themselves become ‘invisible’ due to them not generally being considered in the same light that other doors are, as points of access in to and out of buildings.