Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Rawhide!

[Erich Friend]

“. . . All the things I'm missin' . . .” or so goes the Blues Brother’s version of Ned Washington’s 1958 theme song to a popular TV series.  In a theatre they might go something like this:  “As I travel far and wide, the one thing I keep seein’, is that big metal door;  It’s mechanism heavy, waitin’ to be fallin’ to the floor . . .”

Overhead Coiling Fire Doors are rather innocuous items.  They sit there, almost always left open, but always waiting to come down should there be a fire.  Yes, most of these doors are Fire Doors.  This means that they should be keep closed, not open, whenever they are not needed for moving goods through them.  It’s a pre-emptive strike against a fire spreading, or getting more air to grow.  However, unlike a hinged door with crash bars, they are not a Fire Exit or Egress Route.  How many times have you seen a Store Room or Scene Shop where this is the ONLY exit?  I’ve seen a bunch.  What were they thinking when they did that?  If you get trapped in this room due to a fire on either side of the door, it is going to be really difficult to get out!

It’s also illegal to post an EXIT sign above / beside one of these doors, again because they cannot be considered a Fire Exit.  Yet I see this, too!

In some theatres that have pro-active fire and smoke containment systems, if the Fire Alarm system is activated, and/or the Fire Curtain is released, then the overhead coiling fire door(s) may automatically drop closed.  When this does occur, it happens fast and fairly noisily.  You don’t want to be caught standing under one!  Teach your staff and students that they should never loiter under one of these doors, and they should never leave anything sitting under them, either.  It would be just like propping–open a regular Fire Door, or placing scenic elements in the path of the Fire Curtain.  When you do this you prevent the Fire and Smoke Control System from doing its job of sealing-off the space.

What Happens Next When an Overhead Fire Door Does Get Deployed?

Once the confusion subsides and everyone’s heart starts beating again, you usually have to figure-out how to reset the darn thing.  This is where it gets interesting.  Most of these doors do, or should, have either a fusible link (a small meltable metal link like is found along a Fire Curtain release line or holding a Smoke Vent Door closed), and some also have an electro-mechanical link that holds the door release line tight.  An electro-mechanical release is employed when the door is tied to the Fire Alarm System.  When the fusible link separates, or the electro-mechanical system releases the line, then the emergency release latch is tripped and the door rolls down under the power of gravity.  The spring that keeps the door normally ‘neutrally buoyant’ is bypassed, so the full weight of the door brings it down.

In order to reset the mechanism that holds the door open, you have to either replace the fusible link (got any in stock? – put that on your shopping list), or you have to re-set the electro-mechanical release system.  Both are easier said than done.

The first thing you have to do is understand how to get the door back open.  This sounds easy enough.  The door may only weight several hundred pounds, so you can just send-in your best lifter to open it back up, right?  (Now is the time to go back and re-think that scene shop or storage room with no way to get out except through the overhead door . . . )

Not so right.  You usually need to have some steel pry bars that fit into the holes on the door latch mechanism.  This is spring-loaded so that when it is engaged with the door the door doesn’t roll closed on its own.  You usually need two of these pry bars as you have to rotate the door reel about 30-45 degrees per pull and then use the next bar to make the next pull.  The solid steel bars are usually about ½” diameter and about 2 to 3 feet long (verify this with the doors you have).

This is roughly the procedure you follow (may vary by make and model):

• Clear (reset) the alarm panel, if any.
• Get a step ladder or man-lift tall enough that you can reach the door mechanism and the fusible link system (this can be really tall if the door is really tall, sometimes the fusible link is several feet above the top of the door).  You may need two ladders / lifts, because some doors require two sets of hands to do the reset.
• One person usually replaces the fusible link and resets the release latch (be it a passive link or an electro-mechanical release), while the other cranks the door preload spring back into a balanced condition.
• Stay clear from under the door while you are doing this – if the door gets away from you it’ll come crashing back down!

Things to watch for:

• Some doors have the fusible links on both sides of the wall.  The release line (actually, it is frequently a small metal chain) will go through a small hole in the wall and connect to an additional fusible link on the other side.  This is so it doesn’t matter which side of the wall the fire is on, the door will release either way.
• Someone may have previously tripped the door and didn’t know how to reset the release mechanism, and they have bypassed or tied-off the release line so the fusible link is ineffective.  Fix the system so it actually works!
                                Electro-Mechanical Door Release with release chain tied-off
  
• Find the owner’s manual (or get a new one from the manufacturer), read it, understand it, keep it where you can find it.  The door reset manuals that I have seen are about as clear as mud, so re-writing one with pictures, arrows, and good information may be necessary.  If you have an electro-mechanical alarm release for the door, this will be yet another manual (and may also require some creative writing).

One good solution is to gather all the tools and parts you may need to reset the door, and put them in a red metal box mounted on the wall adjacent to the door.  Label the box clearly that it contains the tools and manual(s) to reset the door if is tripped.  This is a good place to keep a copy of the annual testing and inspection report record.

Have a yearly training session with all the staff and student present.  This is important so that:

1. They See how the door works and how FAST it comes down.
2. They Hear what it SOUNDS like.
3. They Understand how DIFFICULT it is to reset.
4. They Know how much TIME it takes to reset it.
5. They Know WHO to call if the door needs to be reset (post that right on the tool box).

Horizontal Sliding doors and Vertical ‘Guillotine’ type doors are a bit different to handle, so make sure you know what kind of door you have, how to reset it, and how to stay out of the way if it’s closing.

“Keep those doors a rollin’, keep ‘em up, keep ‘em down’, don’t block ‘em,  Rawhide! ”

Can’t ya just hear that whip crack?