Repair To Fire Door

"No attached fire label, no fire door. Period. End. This doesn't mean it's not a sturdy door, just means it isn't recognized by a fire label agency."

That reminds me of an incident that happened a while back here in Chicago. Apparently someone who sells fire doors got into the 'Friends of Daley(1)' circle and insisted that all theatres in Chicago replace all their doors between the stage and house with steel fire doors. One of the first theatres target for this 'upgrade' was the Antheneum Theatre, on Chicago's North Side, an almost 100 year old building that had already shrugged off one fore and came back stronger than before.

Being a small, community-run theatre, they did not have the lawyers on hand to fight off the 'upgrade,' so they had to bay for the ugly, battleship-grey steep doors to replace the almost century-old wooden doors. One of the members of a theatre troupe that used the Antheneum worked at Underwriter Laboratories as his day job, however, and he asked for one of the old wooden doors to test out at the lab.

Two days after he started fire-testing the door, his boss told him to stop, they needed that fire chamber for other tests.

The old wooden doors that were 'unsafe by definition' according to the 'fire inspector' (who was given specific orders to declare ANY wooden fire doors in a theatre as unsafe, because that would boost sales of these metal fire doors) turned out to have a fire rating of 48 HOURS plus. The results of that test were able to be used by the other theatres to fend off the 'upgrades' by having their own doors tested prior to being forced to buy the 'improved' doors.

Notes:

1) In Chicago, there is a long(2) history of corruption and cronyism. Those people who are 'more equal than others,' to borrow a line from Orwell, are generally called 'Friends of Daley,' since Richard Daley Sr. pretty much ran the entire city like his personal playground during his time as mayor. The mayors after him claimed to be trying to dismantle the 'political machine,' but their 'dismantling' looked an awful lot like 'sitting in the driver's seat, running business as usual.' If you've got some scheme to bilk money out of the citizens, you need to make sure Hizzonah, da Mayah gets his share of the profits, as well as an upfront payment 'as a token of respect.'

2) There are some that say that the graft and corruption in Chicago started in old Fort Dearborn, the first military outpost in the area, others refute that it was the dinosaurs who were the first to do cronyism in the area. Then there are the ones who call both camps crazy, pointing out that the amoebas were preying on each other like Political bigwigs oppressing the law-abiding citizens long before there was multicelular life by Lake Michigan.

(Self-marking as OT because I'm kind or rambling here)

Ramble notwithstanding- that is a pertinent story about how the UL fire test failed to consume the old wooden door.

GA time.

On the ramble: there are many stories about code-worthiness, enforcement, and most importantly- code sales. Companies such as Underwriters Lab and Factory Mutual make a business of this - along with a lot of other organizations.

The demand for these upgraded codes seems to be infinite.

It leads one to ask ones self why this would be so.

I am certain that I read in the distant past that Chicago was one of the first jurisdictions to enact building codes.

Tell us, have they finished writing it yet (after only a century and a half)?

"I am certain that I read in the distant past that Chicago was one of the first jurisdictions to enact building codes."

Well, after that 'little fire,' people realized they needed to get serious.

"Tell us, have they finished writing it yet (after only a century and a half)?"

Yes and no:

Yes in that they have a complete set of codes that the building inspectors can enforce (And you can purchase a copy of the codes yourself for reference for only $400. Laws are by definition Public Domain according to the constitution, so that there are no 'secret laws.' But 'codes' are not laws, and are jealously protected by aggressive use of copyright law. The 'codes' are enforced as if they were laws, however, making them de facto 'secret laws.' But that's a rant for another time.)

No in that the codes get updated every year or so when new materials or techniques are added to the construction, electrical, or plumbing industries.

The building codes are part of the fire codes. Everything about house wiring is about not burning the city down. That's why ALL our wiring in the City is in pipe. (the pipe makes it easier to upgrade old wiring for new, or to run a new line to change a lamp into a lamp/fan combo, though)

I have a latent rant brewing about the code 'industry'. It is slightly simplistic to say that codes are updated due to technological change. The industry exists (only) partly for its own benefit. Empires are made this way.

The National Building Code of Canada gets frequent expensive revisions too. Surprisingly, many of the wall and ceiling assemblies which in decades past were assigned fire resistance ratings (in minutes) are now referred to as untested. This is a patent untruth. Likely they have alterred the test to something metric - so that job security goes on...

That is why I asked my rhetorical question as to if they had got it done yet.

It will never be done. And new technology doesn't explain holes in the code (such as "untested"). Every jurisdiction will insist on inventing the wheel for itself.

And the wheel will never be round enough. Ever.

If it can save just one statistical life, it will be deemed reasonable. No price too high, etc,etc.

Whoops - the rant slipped out.

"And the wheel will never be round enough. Ever."

That's because:

A) They want the smoothest possible ride, aka a 'mathematically perfect' wheel, and at the same time,

B) They don't like Pi being 'three and a bit,' they would much prefer Pi to be 3.0000, to make the math simpler.

Two goals, which are A) mutually exclusive, and B) both impossible.

As you describe them, these people are merely hapless idealists.

Not so in my book, since the trend is to fix things which already work. In your allegory they remove decimals from pi so that the standard of roundness cannot be met.

"As you describe them, these people are merely hapless idealists."

No, that is painting them in altogether too good a light, they are B- buh- ... pardon me, I need to work myself up to the term, it's too strong a word to use without some lighter, less-offensive terms used first to 'limber up.'

Criminals.

Murderers.

Rapists.

Child molesters.

B- Buh- BUREAUCRATS! They are bureaucrats. They try to fix things that already work, by making them not work.

(Now if you'll pardon me, I need to go eat a bar of soap. my mouth feels so dirty after that.)