No one who owns a commercial property ever likes
to think about the need for that commercial building to be evacuated quickly. Unfortunately,
fires, natural disasters, and other occurrences do come up and when they do a
building needs resources in place to help evacuate people in a rapid manner. A
big part of any commercial buildings quick egress systems is its emergency
exits. This is especially true if a building has panic bar locks installed on
its emergency exits. We will talk all about these well-designed fast building
egress devices in this article.
Maybe you don’t know exactly what a panic bar is?
That’s not a problem and you will be much better informed about them after
reading this article. You will better understand what they do and how exactly
they make any building much safer as far as its readiness to be evacuated
quickly goes.
What Exactly Is A Panic Bar?
It’s no secret that trying to get out of a
building in an emergency situation can be chaotic at best. When a fire starts
or other building disaster strikes people do not always think and act
rationally. Many will even panic. That’s why during this time people need to be
able to quickly get out any emergency exit without much thought. This is
exactly what panic bars are designed to do.
They are locking devices that unlock an emergency
exact door with a bare minimum effort. Just a slight press on one and they open
an emergency exit door quite easily. So easily in fact that even a child can
activate one. Not only are panic bars great in times of emergency but they also
keep emergency exit doors well secured in non-emergency times too.
Excellent Reasons to Make Sure Panic Bars are Installed on Your Company’s Emergency Exit Doors
These are the biggest reasons why so many
commercial buildings make sure they have panic bars installed on their
emergency exit doors.
- Safety
Without a doubt, by far the
biggest reason for installing panic bars on emergency exit doors is the safety
they add to any building. In times when a building needs to be evacuated
quickly because of such things as fire, bomb threats or a natural disaster, a
few seconds can mean the difference between life and death. Panic bars
significantly increase building egress time because of the way they are
designed. They help gain the precious few seconds needed during building
evacuations that help reduce the severity of injuries and prevent the loss of
life.
- Excellent security
Many people forget that the
purpose of panic bar locks is twofold. Not only do they help make any building
that has them safer during an evacuation but they also have to be designed in a
way that they keep intruders from gaining entry into a building. Panic bar
locks do a great job of both. That’s because there really is nothing on the
outside of a door equipped with panic bars that can be tampered with too help
gain entry into a building. All of the exposed working parts of a panic bar
devoice are installed on the inside facing portion of an emergency exit door.
- Compliance with state laws
Many states do a great job of
making sure their citizens are well taken care of at all times and safe when
inside commercial buildings. As part of this, many states require that
emergency exits have special devices like panic bars installed on emergency
exits. Buildings that are not in compliance with fire codes such as these may
be forced to shut down until they are once again in compliance.
Non-compliant building owners
are always subject to pretty hefty fines if they do not have panic bars and
other required emergency equipment in place at their business.
- Lower insurance premiums
Insurance companies are big fans
of commercial buildings having devices such as panic bars in place. So much so,
that many times they are even willing to give premium discounts to
conscientious building owners who have panic bars and other fast egress devices
properly installed on them. This can result in huge yearly savings for any
business owner.
No comments:
Post a Comment