Faribault Fire Chief Says Wedging a Fire Door Open is Illegal

Faribault Fire Chief Dustin Dienst told KDHL AM Minnesota listeners today it's illegal to wedge a fire door open.  Dienst covered a wide range of topics including the recent report concerning a deadly fire last November at a Minneapolis high rise.

In addition to mentioning the lack of a sprinkler system due to the age of the building Dienst said he read the entire report and something was placed at the bottom of one of the apartment doors that would not allow it to close properly.

Dienst says, "If it's a fire door that's supposed to be closed and it's wedged open, that is illegal and that can lead to, like in this case it wasn't a wedge but if you wedge a door open and that can be proved as a reason that somebody died because of the smoke when that door should have been closed, that's gonna come up in a court case somewhere."

Dienst adds the same is true in a public business, "Those door closures pull the door closed to keep the fire and smoke either in or out depending on what side of the door" it's located.

Dienst also touched on the effectiveness of masks with a rise in COVID-19 cases not just across the state but also in Rice County.

The Faribault Fire Chief says, "It really boils down to when you have symptoms, which one of them is coughing and hacking, of course there's a lot more force there so the stuff coming out of you is going furthur."

"When you're asymptomatic, if you don't cough, if you're just talking, yeah it's still coming out but not with the force.  So you don't get the distance."

Here is our AM Minnesota program.