DOORS AND DANGER

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 86, 8 October 1940, Page 9

DOORS AND DANGER

A TOWN HALL EXAMPLE

As a.practical application of the principles' of ? the Emergency : Precautions Scheme—readiness for any public alarm, earthquake or.war emergency— the. double doors below the ' Mercer Street addition to the Town Hall are not. outstanding. Three emergency exits, from the main hall open into the small enclosed courtyard behind these doors'. .In any licensed public hall the City' Council would insist upon outward opening doors, fitted with panic bolts, so that' pressure from within would draw the bolts and send the doors wide open. These new Town Hall doors, have no panic, bolts; they would be useless, for the two. sections open inwards and pressure from within would join them tighter. The same is true of the other Mercer Street exit, and at times when the possible need of emergency exits is greatest—big wrestling nights, for instance—the doors are kept shut and locked until the last few minutes. However, there is no conflict with the city bylaws, for though the Town Hall is certainly public it is not a licensed hall. But there is some conflict between the high principles of readiness for emergency discussed at E.P.S. meetings (held at the Town Hall) and the high doors of the Mercer Street emergency exit.