Red triangle Stickers are often pasted on the window of tall buildings as firemen access. My question is, In this technological era, do you think the firemen must break the glass window with a hammer to save people? Is there any new technology to open the windows from the outside? What if this was in a hospital NICU ward? How effective is pasting signage with the message" no obstruction near the window"?
It would be nice if the Life Safety Code covered this issue.Please share your experience.
Exterior glazing in windows may be laminated glass to control outside noise which might not be able to be broken with a hammer. At least two panes of glass are used in insulated glass units, sometimes 3 which would also make breaking windows difficult.
If not laminated, typically the outer glass would be at least heat strengthened which, even if breakable, would not leave a "clean" opening because the glass will grip strongly onto the frames for weather purposes.
Ideally, if certain parts of a building are meant specifically for fire department access, those windows should be removable with special tools only when accessible from a ladder (i.e. not on the first floor for security). I am not aware of a commercially available windows that are removable in this way but special "knock out" windows might be able to be manufactured.
The windows in the picture are operable which are increasingly rare in non-residential buildings. There would be more options with operable windows but most windows are fixed.
Deborah has brought up a good point about windows. 2015 NFPA 101 has defined this situation as a limited access structure and has provisions in Section 11.7.
I have seen exterior windows for mental hospitals use laminate glass or other glass that can not be broken and security door openings not readily openable.
The windows in the photo look like emergency access openings meeting the provisions in Section 11.7.3.2.
What is a emergency access opening?
Provisions if you do not have emergency access openings?
New modern construction for hospital's NICU for multi-infant rooms are required to have windows for most state licensure. Operable windows are no longer seen in hospitals because of the HVAC requirements.
I can tell you one thing from my experience, hospital life safety design and staffing has no effective means for occupant evacuation from a building without outside assistance.
Regulators often try to address a wide range and situations by writing very detailed “command and-control,” or prescriptive, codes and rules. There are around 470 provisions in the safety features of the Life Safety Code for evacuation. Do the regulators need more? However, in our state the decision for the withdrawal of occupants from a building is under the sole legal discretion of the local fire marshals, not the hospital's or state's discretion. The hospital, to be in compliance with the Life Safety Code, must develop building evacuation procedures in accordance with Section 4.8 as modified by Section 18/19.7.
To me, I can not see substantiation of how opening a window from the outside and posting sign would align with the with the total concept of the health care occupancies.
In my opinion because of the a hospital's limited resources for building evacuation, a hospital has to plan with the local fire marshal. The rescue through windows would be something the procedures could address on a case-by-case basis not mandated by some detailed wide ranging regulation.
Section 19.1.1.3 reads the same as below.