Abington, PA Building Safety: Door Locking Hardware (2026)

The Fire Prevention Code, adopted at § 85-1 from the 1990 BOCA National Fire Prevention Code, is amended chapter-wide at § 85-4. Subsection K rewrote F-1500.16 to add life-safety rules for every high-rise multiple-occupancy, office, dwelling, institutional, educational or storage building rising more than six stories or 65 feet above mean grade. Along with two-hour fire-resistance-rated stair towers, emergency telephones on at least every fourth floor and an intercommunication system tied to the fire command station, paragraph (2)(e) requires every stair enclosure to carry fire doors approved for Class B openings with positive-closing, products-of-combustion closures interlocked with the fire command station.

The operative sentence is direct: interior stair doors must remain unlocked at all times except on the street floor, or where a fail-safe electric door lock is activated by a detector so the door releases automatically if smoke or fire is sensed. The Fire Marshal administers the code and can order corrections under § 85-3; an applicant who disputes an interpretation can appeal to the Township Manager within 30 days under § 85-6. The Board of Commissioners retains power to modify the code's application on a written showing of practical difficulty under § 85-5, but the stair-door mandate applies to every qualifying high-rise regardless of when it was built, since existing structures had two years to comply once the provision was enacted.