FIRE ESCAPE Christina Joy Chambers IND 5615 Fall 2011

1. Building name and location: Monarch Gardens Retail and Office Complex This is a four story multi-use building located in Miramar, FL. The first floor is composed of several retail spaces and the second, third and fourth floors are occupied by office spaces.

2. Floor: I conducted my fire escape on the 3 rd level. The office space appears to be vacant at this current time. 3. Fire location: The fire is located in the corner just outside of these double doors that I imagine lead to a conference room. View from double doors looking out into the corridor. Fire location

4. Exit Location & Visual Cues Directional exit signs indicated which direction to go in order to exit the building. The first exit sign was non-directional indicating that you must go straight ahead to exit. The second exit sign was directional, indicating that you must make a left turn to exit. 5. Time to Exit It took me 59.6 seconds to exit walking briskly. Exit sign #1 Exit sign #2 Exit sign #3 Route

6. Exit Termination The exit signs lead me to a fire stairway. The exit from the fire stairway lead outside in the rear of the building 7. Re-entry I was able to re-enter the building. The exit door did not lock after I exited the building. Exit Door View to exterior while exiting building. Exit Door Exterior View

8. Fire Stair The exit signs did lead me to a fire stairway. The fire stairway appears to meet all of the fire stair code requirements. It is fully enclosed. The door exiting to the stairway opens into the stairway. In addition the stair width, riser height and tread depth are all appropriate dimensions. The stairway also leads directly to the exterior of the building. Balustrade and handrail Landing Code compliant risers and treads Stair enclosure

9. Sprinklers There were sprinklers located along my route. They were placed approximately every 7.5 feet. Sprinkler locations Route

10. Fire Extinguishers There was one fire extinguisher along my route. It was in a very clear, easily accessible location. Extinguisher location The fire extinguisher was clearly labeled with instructions on how to use it. The instructions are both textual and pictorial. It seems easy to use.

11. Power Outage Situation In the event of a fire and electrical outage, the fire emergency lights place along the exit route will flash. 12. Wheel Chair If in a wheel chair the fire escape route will be the same because the elevators will not be service. Ideally, there would be an area of refuge near the exit stair so an individual in a wheel chair will have a place to wait for assistance. I did not encounter and area of refuge anywhere near any of the exits in the building. Fire light locations

13. Blindness: I assume that an emergency auditory signal will begin in the case of emergency. If there are not any guiding auditory signals, I don’t see a way for a vision impaired individual to know where and how to exit the building without assistance. 14. Deafness A hearing impaired individual would surely know if there is a fire in the building. The flashing emergency fire light would alarm them. 15. Observations One observation that I made is that I initially thought the exit sign in the photo should be directional. The nearest exit is actually to the right as the arrow indicates. The closer exit also leads to a stairway, that leads to a door and then a corridor. The short corridor then leads to an exit. In order to be considered an emergency exit, the stairway must exit to the exterior of the building.