FIRE ESCAPEChristina Joy ChambersIND 5615Fall 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 3rd 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.