Photo submitted by George Corron

Which way is out then?.



Thanks George!.

I'll admit that I've been known to chew out the folks at the local Safeway when I go in there late at night, and the door that's placarded "THIS DOOR MUST REMAIN UNLOCKED DURING BUSINESS HOURS" is locked, with several feet of merchandise stacked in front of it. Not that it does me any good--they just look at me like I'm some sort of a kook. Maybe if I'd stopped by right after the Great White disaster...

Anyway, I suspect that the photo is of the entrance to a stairwell that's a legally-required fire exit, and management has decided that they were getting riffraff sneaking around in the stairwells, and locked them off with high-security locks.

They'll be in a heap of trouble when the building burns, and fifty people die because the fire exits were locked. That's happened way too many times.


(Edited to note: I meant "riffraff" in the satirical sense, as a jab at those who think it is more important to control people than it is to keep people from dying in a fire. It's not a word I normally use to describe people.)


[This message has been edited by SolarPowered (edited 07-25-2005).]

Doing my Sherlock Holmes act; I'm surmising that the blue door is an exclusive washroom facility?- note the narrowness of the room and the card entry type of lock and the very nice decor. Very low ceilings; (is this a prefabricated lightweight-building?)- and a narrow door reveal resulted in a poor placement of signs- there is no room on the reveal or the ceiling - and the correct exit route is actually posted just in shot on the left. In this scenario, the sign on the door saying 'this is not an exit' is actually an attempt to remedy the bad placement of the exit signs, not a 'keep the riff-raff out' one. I have seen the solution to this quandry on big modern English-Channel Ferries running Caen-Portsmouth, where narrow corridors and low ceilings in the cabin areas present the same problems. The exit route markings are on the deck ( floor), as lit or reflective arrows, because in a fire situation high signs like those depicted are often also obscured by smoke. You get near the floor in a fire- thats where the clearer air is.
It's a real pity that door wasn't painted yellow, then I could have done my "It's a lemon-entry, my dear Watson." joke!
Alan
PS Rejected the idea of a hotel/motel room, as there is no door number.

[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 07-23-2005).]

I'd hazard a guess that the actual exit is down the corridor to the left of the door and there is an issue with the placement of the exit sighs.