Did any of your schools have those magnetic doors? My elementary school did.
Yes they are extremely popular.
…and required. They are fire doors that must close when the alarm sounds. To tell a door is fire-rated there is usually a plaque on the hinge side of the door (can only be seen when door is open) that tells you the brand of the door and the door’s fire resistance time rating. For example, the doors at the high school have been tested to resist “average” fire for 4 hours before failing.
Same here at Stevenson; the doors were installed during the 1990’s when annex wings were constructed onto the school.
Yes, all my schools have those. My college has them, one day they were closed, and when I walked past the annunciator there was an alarm. I didn’t hear the signal where I was, maybe the signals only sounded in a certain area, since there were areas that were seperated from other areas, or maybe they were silenced when they were testing the detectors.
MHS had mostly magnetic ones, but the 2003 addition doors had this little holder in the door closer track that held the door open and when the alarms went off, the the holder went into the track, allowing for the doors to close.
Only two pairs at my ES had magnets. The rest were some sort of retrofitted closers (NOT like the ones at the HS) that when you pushed them open to be held open, they made a loud “bang” noise. They didn’t make any noise when they closed though. I’m kinda amazed the system was able to accomodate them, despite being ancient (IBM system from the '50s), although it wouldn’t surprise me if they had a modern conventional panel the pulls were wired to that tripped the old panel via relays when it went into alarm. The two magnetic sets were also the only set of doors actually in hallways. The rest of the doors were doors to the stairwells.
Interestingly enough, I remember one drill in first grade when there was no alarm (they announced the drill over the PA and said there would be no alarm) but all the doors still closed. Sadly, I was a lot more terrified of alarms back then than interested, and the school is no longer in use. But at least I still have my sound clip…