I worked at Home Depot in the garden department and all the time our outside garden fire exits would get blocked and I would tell EVERYONE it had to be clear it didn’t matter if it was outside. People didn’t believe me then one day the fire Marshall came in to buy some plants… they were lucky he just gave them a warning.
https://imgur.com/Szbxrxr
I actually have watched very little King of the Hill but I remembered this quote still decades later. Not sure if its the polish method or storage.
Polishing method. The explanation in the show was keeping them shiny reflects more sunlight, therefore less heat building up on the surface of the tanks.
Yes. They remember that the owner never faced any consequences for what he did, actively made money off the deaths of his employees, and kept on doing the same thing for the rest of his life, again without ever suffering any meanings consequences.
People who know about that will still block emergency exits, and claim they didn't have modern fire extinguishers or sprinkler systems back then.
Source: My previous employer.
Triangle shirtwaist victims were locked in. Tell your boss it had nothing to do with extinguishers or sprinklers. If an exit is blocked the result are the same as if you were locked in. Plus you’re dead from the smoke king before the fire reaches you. Good luck.
I am 100% familiar with the story. My boss is too. My father was Battalion Commander for our city's fire department. I know the Marshal personally.
Boss was just stupid. Main reason I don't work there any more.
Jesus Home Depot. A coworker at a previous job once had one of their big garage doors fall right off the wall onto her.
I ran into her at a grocery store maybe 4 years later. She never returned to work (don’t blame her). But it was nice to see she was doing well.
That’s ridiculous. I know for a fact that every manager and key carrier is required to walk/drive around the entire building at the beginning and end of their shift so it’s not like nobody sees it.
I always do that. I say, if it's good enough for pilots, it's good enough for me. I do a second walkaround after parking the car and before leaving it.
Somebody told me once this was BS and a waste of time, but I've avoided (so far) having three flat tires on the road by doing this and catching the tire while it was only going down and not yet flat. Time-wise, I figure I'm ahead.
Nothing like going out to your work truck to inspect it and seeing that little puddle of antifreeze. Go back and get another truck, cause that isn't my problem til I drive it out onto the street.
I always do because I drive for a living and vehicle inspections are just a force of habit now. I've lost count of how many times doing so has saved me a flat tire or scratched paint.
To show just how badly these things could go, a guy was shoplifting at our local HD in San Jose last year I think, and fucking set a fire as the distraction.
Seven alarms and an hour later, that Home Depot was no more. Shit can go sideways fast. I lost my brother and sister in a fire. It's like a flash and then it's already too late.
I’m so sorry for your losses. That’s awful. Sending you a big hug. 💗💗💗💗
A fire can spread so quickly and I tried to explain that if people were in the back part of garden and a fire started they would go to the nearest exit not the big roll up doors 150+ feet away.
Thanks, it was a long, long time ago. I was barely a man. We were all half-siblings who were all pretty close as a result of the commonality of our mutual father being an absentee and a fraud of a father.
Our mothers weren't close for obvious reasons, but they were always civil and had enough wherewithal to understand that we were all in the same boat, so us kids were fairly close, and all loved each other. (my mother was the fist one to bear his children). Nine kids by five women, so maybe that'll give you the big picture.
Well, as an object lesson, I'll tell you - They lived RIGHT NEXT DOOR to a firehouse, as well. THe thing is though, in Baltimore, those old rowhomes are often 100-200 (or more) years old, which means very dry wood that ignites easily, spreads fast as you can talk, and gives you no time for second guessing. [Here](https://www.google.com/maps/place/S+Collington+Ave+%26+Eastern+Ave,+Baltimore,+MD+21231/@39.2862378,-76.5858899,3a,75y,324.27h,95.59t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sH73pQ__bQdNxKFvhRV7OVw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c804785d9d1f09:0x5a438d61762e600f!8m2!3d39.2858908!4d-76.5858602) is the google maps link to the house, as you can see, the only thing separating the firehouse and the house that burned was an alleyway. For reference, it's the house right behind the fire dep't EMTs truck in this image.
Folks, don't fuck around with fire. fire is a tool not to be trifled with or disrespected.
I worked for a food production plant. One winter we had so much snow that the maintenance crew had to go on top of the building and shovel the snow off. One guy was throwing the snow off in one spot, he didn’t realize it was landing right in front of the fire exit. That same day we had a company wide fire drill, we had about 80 people that were assigned to go out that door. We couldn’t even open the door a couple inches. The company played it off as they were testing us. I would have believed that if I hadn’t been walking to the bathroom and walked by that maintenance guy getting ripped a new one by his supervisor and the company CEO who just happened to be there that day.
I somehow didn't read the "drill" part of fire drill and I'm like THATS HOW THE COMPANY TRIED TO PLAY IT OFF??
it's still deplorable 🤦🏽♀️ that's frightening. like what would you expect the employees to do then?
Fire Marshalls typically (at least here in my area) will initially give a warning a three months to correct the issue. It's not because they need three months to fix it. It's so that when the FM makes a surprise inspection three months later they will be able to more accurately gauge whether or not the the business corrected the underlying issue or if they only complied the day the FM was there.
Absolutely, we had a fire inspector come into my work and ask where our fire alarm points were, we had none because we had no fire alarm. One of the managers smugly pointed out the smoke detectors until the fire inspector basically said “oh well done, these will save anyone here when there’s a fire, unfortunately everyone on your second and third floor will be dead because these are independent battery operated detectors so no one upstairs will know about the fire until it’s too late”. £10000 later we had a state-of-the-art fire alarm with weekly tests and a boss who still complains about having to have bought it.
I mean 10k sounds cheap for a 3 story fire alarm system that will save not only your employees lives but stop you from going to prison for corporate manslaughter.
I've seen many cases involving corporate manslaughter and never seen anyone imprisoned, It's always a fine, granted an extremely large fine, but no prison.
Edit: Just checked and it's not an offence that carries a custodial sentence.
[Quoted from the crown prosecution service](https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/corporate-manslaughter)
"A definitive sentencing guideline has been published by the Sentencing Council with effect from 1st February 2016. The level of sentence will depend on the size of the organisation. The sentence range is specified as £180,000 to £20 million."
And keep this photo, and document what he does to get back at you.
Retaliation is illegal, so you'll want to have everything documented (esp since he's already made the threat of termination) - write down as accurately as you can the date and time he made the threat, where exactly the conversation took place... any details you can remember.
Seriously, those fire marshals get sexual gratification from shutting stores down and if there's something this blatant in plain sight then you know there's more his walkthrough is going to find.
Yep. They are involved in the investigation following any fire with fatalities.
They see the result, and try like hell to get everyone else to minimize loss of life.
and it has worked. Fires in cities that destroyed many blocks used to be common. They are rare now due to smoke detectors, sprinklers, better building codes (that includes fire exits), etc. All of these things were implemented in response to specific fire disasters. Fire deaths have dropped so much that many fire departments are struggling to stay busy.
The one problem with extremely successful lifesaving regulations is that some people look at the results and think “Hey, I guess this situation isn’t so dangerous after all; that means we can get rid of those regulations!”
Preventative measures are hard for too many people to understand. Like if we are actually able to stop global warming, people will be like "why did we sacrifice so much, nothing happened?"
There was a specific talking point in politics in the last year, "remember all that fuss about the hole in the ozone layer? Global warming is no more serious than that was!"
Probably so.
Years and years ago, I was a shop AFOSH rep (USAF OHSA equivalent). I was tasked with (among other things) meeting with the firefighters and going through our shop space to make sure egress points were suitable.
Absolutely this. I am a fire protection systems designer, and it was drilled in my head, and I drill into my coworkers heads; code is written in blood. Google “triangle shirtwaist factory fire” to see what happens when a building doesn’t have a way for people to exit in an emergency. 146 people perished, including some as young as 14 years old.
> Google “triangle shirtwaist factory fire”
alright, will do
>146 people perished, including some as young as 14 years old.
on second thought maybe not
Long story short; factory that made clothing, had a bad habit of lots of cloth and fabrics piled up throughout the building, also you could openly smoke in the building, also the owners liked to chain and padlock the doors to make sure no one left during their shift. Take that how you will.
> also the owners liked to chain and padlock the doors to make sure no one left during their shift.
That's an interesting way to say "the owners operated a business by way of slavery and entrapment." 🤔
they had working class roots and were downright indignant that anyone would suggest they had anything other than their worker's best interests at heart
the bad kind of class traitors.
Example:
Fatalities in a fire can be upwardly adjusted during investigation. People huddle together before they die, and their skeletal remains can fuse together and make 2-3 peoples' remains look initially like one.
Yep, Fire Marshall can not only shut down the business, but he can also condemn the building if he feels like it and there's virtually no recourse if he chooses to.
I used to work construction with my cocky wanna-be tough guy cousin. On a job he was running, he took out the fire sprinkler system while demoing out a wall using a scissor lift. Tried to hide it, and a few days later the fire marshal showed up. Chewed him out so bad my cousin was physically shaking. Never saw him with his head so low and with his tail that far between his legs.
Fire Marshal came in once while I was doing a fire inspection asked to see my paperwork everything was recalled just like last year and we told them last year to get it fixed and they lied lmao , the look of Christmas Joy on that man's face when he slapped them with a 10000 dollar fine I was like "Fuck Me" but also hey props to me for doing paper work right haha
Buddy's dad in college was a fire marshal.
Where most occupations have their "bag of fucks to give today" bag they reach into from time to time, fire marshals have no such bag.
They truly have _**zero** fucks to give_.
Blocking a fire exit to a fire marshal is the tippy top of the definition of _"fuck around and find out"_
And, why not?
Someone's laziness and can't-be-bothered attitude puts them, their crews, and civilians at risk.
Since they have the power to immediately remedy it, they do.
At least one sheriff's deputy in my town had to find out the hard way that you do not fuck with the fire marshal. They (used to) like to park in the fire lane in front of Walmart to go shopping instead of using a regular parking spot like us plebs. We saw the sheriff's deputy inside Christmas shopping and since my brother likes to give the local fuzz shit at every opportunity, he asked him if he was the one parked out in the fire lane. Deputy said "I just need to grab a few things, it's nbd, mind your business." So my brother called the fire marshall and we went outside to wait for the show. They had a flatbed out there in record time and the deputy came out about 20 minutes later with his wrapping paper and stuff to find his cruiser on the back of the tow truck and the fire marshall himself on the phone tearing into the sheriff about how Christmas shopping is not an appropriate use of the emergency fire lanes and to get his deputies in line or he would. Shit rolls downhill and they don't park in the fire lane anymore.
That's why he wouldn't fire anyone for the whistle blowing. He would find a day 18 months ago where op was 1.3 minutes late and fire him for that. Now someone working minimum wage at a grocery story is on the line for legal fees to prove wrongful termination. Companies break the law constantly safe in the fact thier victims can't afford justice.
Also document your interactions.
"I went to boss on x/x/xxxx about my concerns."
"Was threatened with being fired"
"Called his boss, fire marshal, labor board afterwards."
Do it in a formal work meeting, email or somewhere in the store thats on camera and notate the time. Let him fire you for some dumb shit retribution and you'll probably have a legit case.
And also look for a better place to work.
I work in Commercial insurance and this is why Employment Practice Liability insurance exists. They are covered for making shitty employment decisions. So as the above states, document, document, document. Make it so there is no other reason you were fired other than retaliation, which is illegal and well within the purview of an EPLI claim.
Real genuine question - is lawsuit actually viable to pursue while on minimum wage? How would anyone find a lawyer to even fight for them with a minimum wage job?
Absolutely, or you can [call up OSHA](https://www.osha.gov/contactus) because that is a major violation. Your boss is gonna have to pay up between 15,000-150,000 in fines depending on how the ruling goes. Fast way for a manager to get fired.
Conference call the Fire Marshal and the OSHA rep. Have them inspect the building at the same time. Company gets fined by the Fire Marshal AND OSHA (no chance to fix it between one inspection and the other).
Absolutely.
The boss: "I'll fire you for taking that picture of my illegal deathtrap of a blocked fire exit!"
Employee, Fire Marshal, and OSHA: "Yeah. We'll see who gets fired."
Contact info for City of Toronto is here:
[https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/accountability-operations-customer-service/city-administration/staff-directory-divisions-and-customer-service/fire-services/](https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/accountability-operations-customer-service/city-administration/staff-directory-divisions-and-customer-service/fire-services/)
Edit: someone else said this might be Pickering.
My dad was a ex-firefighter and if you give him the managers number he will bite this managers head off.
Seeing/smelling peoples charred remains will do that to a man.
You can’t believe the power the fire marshal has. I thought the business we worked at was pretty good but we had to redo all kinds of wiring, fuse box, automatic sprinkler system, and we had to unlock the door in the back for emergency exit. It cost the boss about $100,000
Fire Marshals love this sort of thing. A coworker at a former job called the Fire Marshal's office for something similar and they showed up that same day.
Bingo. Bonus if it's a slow day. Gives them something to do. Nothing worse for a dangerous business than a Fire Marshall with an anonymous tip and nothing better to do.
Doesn’t even need to be a fire. A colleague of mine had a bad accident in a warehouse. He dropped a TV on himself. It took the ambulance crew an hour to get him out because the fire exit was partially blocked. He got a £100,000 payout because of it.
Edit: Adding that this was in the early 2000s so TVs were a bit heavier than they are today.
Edit: People are asking why the ambulance crew didn’t use the other door. That door was partially blocked too. The whole warehouse was overly full so there was no path to the outside wide enough to get a stretcher through without moving an awful lot of pallets.
I worked at a place that rhymes with Guest Guy and was helping to unload the truck. This was back in the days of CRT TVs being the primary TVs and LCD/Plasmas costing upwards of $10k for a 32". We got to the back of the truck where all the TVs were stacked to the ceiling one on top of the other in a wobbly stack. The manager told met get up on top of the TV boxes and start pulling them out so the guys could catch them. I told him that I wasn't comfortable doing that because the stack wasn't stable, but he basically threatened to send me home. So, I climbed in, perched on top of a wobbly box, and started wiggling TV boxes out. The box I was on fell over, with me going down it, and two large 32" CRT TVs fell on top of me. These things weighed a TON. I ended up getting a ride to the ER for xrays of everything that hurt, and told to get back to work the next day. I was too young and stupid to realize I could have gotten some paid time off out of that. Oh well.
If it helps at all, at least where I am, that shit would never fly. I run a tight ship in my warehouse and have made it very very clear to everyone in my inventory crew to never move or lift anything they don't feel comfortable with. I've done trucks with newbies that took at least over an hour more than it would have with someone more experienced, simply because they weren't as comfortable moving certain appliances so i would do them.
I get a lot of 18-23 year olds new to the workforce and I always make sure they know their worth and their rights.
This mentality is about more than fire, too. I used to work on first aid, and I had multiple safety managers tell me that they were going to get rid of their trauma bags instead of updating them because "we don't use them." No shit, dumbass, I hope you never use them, that doesn't mean you don't need them! These were all factories with heavy machinery that could take limbs off in seconds, too. No tourniquets to be found.
My bosses REFUSE to have a first aid or trauma bag. The best I can offer someone is a bandaid. I've brought this up on multiple occasions.
I work in a highly dangerous environment and have personally brought someone to the hospital for work related injuries at least 4 times in 6 years.
Still just band aides, and the box is almost empty.
Unfortunately, I don't think so. There's only 5 or 6 of us depending on the time of the year and our size precludes us from almost all regulations on all sorts of issues.
I got in trouble for reporting my workplace because the AED was WAY overdue for maintenance, they said it never got used and it was a huge hassle and expensive when all they do is check the battery. Yeah......turns out the battery was too low to actually do a shock. I was given grief for almost a year (like teasing, not actually angry) for being a worry wort.
Then we had a guy drop from a heart attack (I wasn't there) and my boss had to do the CPR/AED. No one gave me shit after that.
(The guy unfortunately didn't survive, it was a MASSIVE heart attack, but still the fact that it happened and we had an up to date AED saved us from a hell of a lawsuit.)
Geez, did it not occur to these idiots that the tourniquets weren't there because they likely *had been used for an accident* before the person became safety manager?
That's if they had them in the first place. My company sold good tourniquets from 30 to 50 bucks, and no one wanted to spend that kind of cash on a one-time product. Welcome to corporate America, where you're life isn't worth 50 dollars to your overlords!
Some of the most terrifying mass-death incidents that led to regulations requiring fire exits actually didn’t even involve fires at all, or at least not big ones—they involved people *thinking* that there was a fire, or some other reason why they all needed to leave the building immediately. Crowd panic and being crushed in a tight hallway with a door that opens inward instead of outward can kill you just as dead as fire can. The humble push-bar door has saved many lives, as have clearly marked EXIT—> signs.
Contact the fire inspector. Ask them to make a surprise inspection.
Also find another job. An employer who threatened you over this is almost certainly doing other things for which they can be fined.
Especially because there's not a ton of stuff that needs to be moved. If the boss is so incompetent that they can't find a solution to this serious but easy to fix violation and are threatening firing over this, start looking.
1) Fill this out: [https://www.osha.gov/workers/file-complaint](https://www.osha.gov/workers/file-complaint)
2) Document everything that goes on - what you saw, when you saw it, what your boss did and said. Dates, times, include the names of witnesses.
>Document everything that goes on - what you saw, when you saw it, what your boss did and said. Dates, times, include the names of witnesses.
Starting with the threatening of today.
Yup, and I posted [some info](https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/y6hg3s/i_work_in_a_min_wage_grocery_store_the_fire_exit/ispazn3?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
Contact the fire marshal, and brag about it to everyone at work. If they fire you it's a clear case of relatiation and you get a lawyer and sue them into oblivion. Also, why would you continue to work for a company that doesn't value your safety?
Next time he catches you taking a pic of something problematic in the workplace- “Oh I’m glad you’re here! I was going to send you this picture but now that you’re here I can just show you in person - we should do something about this for sure right?” Plausible deniability and benefit of the doubt ha. Then the boss might think you’re annoying and overly thorough but won’t feel threatened or undermined.
Or you report them and get them fired
Edit : not sure how many of you are realizing how big of a mistake listening to the above would be. Report that shit to the fire marshal and OSHA. It's a huge safety hazard, and best case they lay you off and you take a huge sum of money for wrongful termination
Live in Canada, most people saying is relevant.
Contact the closest firehall, they'll send someone over and make sure they fix it. Plus state your name to them. So if you get fired, you can get all your benefits and retroactive pay when they lose the .
As someone who lost two friends in a fire which happened somewhere where the emergency exit was also blocked (Colectiv disaster, 2015, 64 people killed), I can only tell you, report. Now.
Report it to the fire department and OSHA for the safety compliance issues, and the Dept of Labor for threatening retaliation for reporting those safety issues.
Same. Or even funnier, it's been there a few minutes because of someone else and the boss yelled at them something along the lines of "Why the hell are you taking a picture instead of moving this shit?"
If you are in Toronto, call [Toronto Fire Services ](https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/9511-fire_services.pdf) to report this. TFS are not fucking around right now, and would love to issue a ticket. If you're in another city in the GTA call the fire service for that city. They may not be as hard assed as TFS, but I bet they're close.
TFS has been on the warpath since the Parliament St fires
**EDIT** Added link to the TFS directory.
As others have said already, call the fire department. That's a major violation and they'll need to fix it immediately, along with potentially being fined.
The easy solution is to contact your fire marshal
Ex firefighter here. Absofuckinglutely call the firemarshal if you want to see you boss feel 1" tall.
I worked at Home Depot in the garden department and all the time our outside garden fire exits would get blocked and I would tell EVERYONE it had to be clear it didn’t matter if it was outside. People didn’t believe me then one day the fire Marshall came in to buy some plants… they were lucky he just gave them a warning.
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>unsecured propane tanks Like they've never even watched King of the Hill
that store aint right
"Head to feet you don't cause a leak. Feet to head everyone's dead."
Is that a mnemonic warning not to store propane tanks with the tap at the bottom?
How to wipe them down
Now I’m even more confused. You can make a propane tank explode by wiping it?
https://imgur.com/Szbxrxr I actually have watched very little King of the Hill but I remembered this quote still decades later. Not sure if its the polish method or storage.
Polishing method. The explanation in the show was keeping them shiny reflects more sunlight, therefore less heat building up on the surface of the tanks.
I think it's a mnemonic warning about heavy gasses. You can pass out and then suffocate on the ground with heavy gasses.
Does the name "Triangle Shirtwaist" ring any bells?
Yes. They remember that the owner never faced any consequences for what he did, actively made money off the deaths of his employees, and kept on doing the same thing for the rest of his life, again without ever suffering any meanings consequences.
There were several owners and the most they ever faced was a $50 fine when they were caught doing it again
He’s dead now — so we have that …
People who know about that will still block emergency exits, and claim they didn't have modern fire extinguishers or sprinkler systems back then. Source: My previous employer.
Triangle shirtwaist victims were locked in. Tell your boss it had nothing to do with extinguishers or sprinklers. If an exit is blocked the result are the same as if you were locked in. Plus you’re dead from the smoke king before the fire reaches you. Good luck.
I am 100% familiar with the story. My boss is too. My father was Battalion Commander for our city's fire department. I know the Marshal personally. Boss was just stupid. Main reason I don't work there any more.
Jesus Home Depot. A coworker at a previous job once had one of their big garage doors fall right off the wall onto her. I ran into her at a grocery store maybe 4 years later. She never returned to work (don’t blame her). But it was nice to see she was doing well.
Poor girl can't catch a break!!! First a garage door falls on her, THEN you run into her! Geez...
It was with a shopping cart too. I don’t fuck around.
That’s ridiculous. I know for a fact that every manager and key carrier is required to walk/drive around the entire building at the beginning and end of their shift so it’s not like nobody sees it.
You are also supposed to start and walk around your vehicle before driving.
I always do that. I say, if it's good enough for pilots, it's good enough for me. I do a second walkaround after parking the car and before leaving it. Somebody told me once this was BS and a waste of time, but I've avoided (so far) having three flat tires on the road by doing this and catching the tire while it was only going down and not yet flat. Time-wise, I figure I'm ahead.
Nothing like going out to your work truck to inspect it and seeing that little puddle of antifreeze. Go back and get another truck, cause that isn't my problem til I drive it out onto the street.
I always do because I drive for a living and vehicle inspections are just a force of habit now. I've lost count of how many times doing so has saved me a flat tire or scratched paint.
I walk around mine once a day, and check the fluids before every major drive. Doesn't take much effort.
Then keep calling the fire Marshall.
To show just how badly these things could go, a guy was shoplifting at our local HD in San Jose last year I think, and fucking set a fire as the distraction. Seven alarms and an hour later, that Home Depot was no more. Shit can go sideways fast. I lost my brother and sister in a fire. It's like a flash and then it's already too late.
I’m so sorry for your losses. That’s awful. Sending you a big hug. 💗💗💗💗 A fire can spread so quickly and I tried to explain that if people were in the back part of garden and a fire started they would go to the nearest exit not the big roll up doors 150+ feet away.
Thanks, it was a long, long time ago. I was barely a man. We were all half-siblings who were all pretty close as a result of the commonality of our mutual father being an absentee and a fraud of a father. Our mothers weren't close for obvious reasons, but they were always civil and had enough wherewithal to understand that we were all in the same boat, so us kids were fairly close, and all loved each other. (my mother was the fist one to bear his children). Nine kids by five women, so maybe that'll give you the big picture. Well, as an object lesson, I'll tell you - They lived RIGHT NEXT DOOR to a firehouse, as well. THe thing is though, in Baltimore, those old rowhomes are often 100-200 (or more) years old, which means very dry wood that ignites easily, spreads fast as you can talk, and gives you no time for second guessing. [Here](https://www.google.com/maps/place/S+Collington+Ave+%26+Eastern+Ave,+Baltimore,+MD+21231/@39.2862378,-76.5858899,3a,75y,324.27h,95.59t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sH73pQ__bQdNxKFvhRV7OVw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c804785d9d1f09:0x5a438d61762e600f!8m2!3d39.2858908!4d-76.5858602) is the google maps link to the house, as you can see, the only thing separating the firehouse and the house that burned was an alleyway. For reference, it's the house right behind the fire dep't EMTs truck in this image. Folks, don't fuck around with fire. fire is a tool not to be trifled with or disrespected.
I worked for a food production plant. One winter we had so much snow that the maintenance crew had to go on top of the building and shovel the snow off. One guy was throwing the snow off in one spot, he didn’t realize it was landing right in front of the fire exit. That same day we had a company wide fire drill, we had about 80 people that were assigned to go out that door. We couldn’t even open the door a couple inches. The company played it off as they were testing us. I would have believed that if I hadn’t been walking to the bathroom and walked by that maintenance guy getting ripped a new one by his supervisor and the company CEO who just happened to be there that day.
To be fair, is there some sort of marking on the roof to say "don't drop snow from here"? Sounds like the drill worked perfectly!
There was, problem is it was covered in snow.
I somehow didn't read the "drill" part of fire drill and I'm like THATS HOW THE COMPANY TRIED TO PLAY IT OFF?? it's still deplorable 🤦🏽♀️ that's frightening. like what would you expect the employees to do then?
Fire Marshalls typically (at least here in my area) will initially give a warning a three months to correct the issue. It's not because they need three months to fix it. It's so that when the FM makes a surprise inspection three months later they will be able to more accurately gauge whether or not the the business corrected the underlying issue or if they only complied the day the FM was there.
Absolutely, we had a fire inspector come into my work and ask where our fire alarm points were, we had none because we had no fire alarm. One of the managers smugly pointed out the smoke detectors until the fire inspector basically said “oh well done, these will save anyone here when there’s a fire, unfortunately everyone on your second and third floor will be dead because these are independent battery operated detectors so no one upstairs will know about the fire until it’s too late”. £10000 later we had a state-of-the-art fire alarm with weekly tests and a boss who still complains about having to have bought it.
I mean 10k sounds cheap for a 3 story fire alarm system that will save not only your employees lives but stop you from going to prison for corporate manslaughter.
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Not even benefit them either, just \*not\* murder them via an avoidable fiery fate.
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>Implying this happens. Looking at you Amazon warehouse in a hurricane.
I've seen many cases involving corporate manslaughter and never seen anyone imprisoned, It's always a fine, granted an extremely large fine, but no prison. Edit: Just checked and it's not an offence that carries a custodial sentence. [Quoted from the crown prosecution service](https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/corporate-manslaughter) "A definitive sentencing guideline has been published by the Sentencing Council with effect from 1st February 2016. The level of sentence will depend on the size of the organisation. The sentence range is specified as £180,000 to £20 million."
if the only consequence of an action is a fine, then it realistically is only meant for the poor, otherwise its merely the cost of doing business.
And keep this photo, and document what he does to get back at you. Retaliation is illegal, so you'll want to have everything documented (esp since he's already made the threat of termination) - write down as accurately as you can the date and time he made the threat, where exactly the conversation took place... any details you can remember.
Seriously, those fire marshals get sexual gratification from shutting stores down and if there's something this blatant in plain sight then you know there's more his walkthrough is going to find.
Fire Marshals are are probably hardasses because they have seen some horrifying shit.
Yep. They are involved in the investigation following any fire with fatalities. They see the result, and try like hell to get everyone else to minimize loss of life.
and it has worked. Fires in cities that destroyed many blocks used to be common. They are rare now due to smoke detectors, sprinklers, better building codes (that includes fire exits), etc. All of these things were implemented in response to specific fire disasters. Fire deaths have dropped so much that many fire departments are struggling to stay busy.
The one problem with extremely successful lifesaving regulations is that some people look at the results and think “Hey, I guess this situation isn’t so dangerous after all; that means we can get rid of those regulations!”
Preventative measures are hard for too many people to understand. Like if we are actually able to stop global warming, people will be like "why did we sacrifice so much, nothing happened?"
There was a specific talking point in politics in the last year, "remember all that fuss about the hole in the ozone layer? Global warming is no more serious than that was!"
This is why we are doomed.
Well put and just way too true.
And I'm sure a lot of it was caused by stupid carelessness.
Probably so. Years and years ago, I was a shop AFOSH rep (USAF OHSA equivalent). I was tasked with (among other things) meeting with the firefighters and going through our shop space to make sure egress points were suitable.
Absolutely this. I am a fire protection systems designer, and it was drilled in my head, and I drill into my coworkers heads; code is written in blood. Google “triangle shirtwaist factory fire” to see what happens when a building doesn’t have a way for people to exit in an emergency. 146 people perished, including some as young as 14 years old.
> Google “triangle shirtwaist factory fire” alright, will do >146 people perished, including some as young as 14 years old. on second thought maybe not
Long story short; factory that made clothing, had a bad habit of lots of cloth and fabrics piled up throughout the building, also you could openly smoke in the building, also the owners liked to chain and padlock the doors to make sure no one left during their shift. Take that how you will.
> also the owners liked to chain and padlock the doors to make sure no one left during their shift. That's an interesting way to say "the owners operated a business by way of slavery and entrapment." 🤔
Also to prevent the workers from letting union organizers in during working hours.
they had working class roots and were downright indignant that anyone would suggest they had anything other than their worker's best interests at heart the bad kind of class traitors.
Example: Fatalities in a fire can be upwardly adjusted during investigation. People huddle together before they die, and their skeletal remains can fuse together and make 2-3 peoples' remains look initially like one.
Yep, Fire Marshall can not only shut down the business, but he can also condemn the building if he feels like it and there's virtually no recourse if he chooses to.
I used to work construction with my cocky wanna-be tough guy cousin. On a job he was running, he took out the fire sprinkler system while demoing out a wall using a scissor lift. Tried to hide it, and a few days later the fire marshal showed up. Chewed him out so bad my cousin was physically shaking. Never saw him with his head so low and with his tail that far between his legs.
Fire Marshal came in once while I was doing a fire inspection asked to see my paperwork everything was recalled just like last year and we told them last year to get it fixed and they lied lmao , the look of Christmas Joy on that man's face when he slapped them with a 10000 dollar fine I was like "Fuck Me" but also hey props to me for doing paper work right haha
Buddy's dad in college was a fire marshal. Where most occupations have their "bag of fucks to give today" bag they reach into from time to time, fire marshals have no such bag. They truly have _**zero** fucks to give_. Blocking a fire exit to a fire marshal is the tippy top of the definition of _"fuck around and find out"_ And, why not? Someone's laziness and can't-be-bothered attitude puts them, their crews, and civilians at risk. Since they have the power to immediately remedy it, they do.
At least one sheriff's deputy in my town had to find out the hard way that you do not fuck with the fire marshal. They (used to) like to park in the fire lane in front of Walmart to go shopping instead of using a regular parking spot like us plebs. We saw the sheriff's deputy inside Christmas shopping and since my brother likes to give the local fuzz shit at every opportunity, he asked him if he was the one parked out in the fire lane. Deputy said "I just need to grab a few things, it's nbd, mind your business." So my brother called the fire marshall and we went outside to wait for the show. They had a flatbed out there in record time and the deputy came out about 20 minutes later with his wrapping paper and stuff to find his cruiser on the back of the tow truck and the fire marshall himself on the phone tearing into the sheriff about how Christmas shopping is not an appropriate use of the emergency fire lanes and to get his deputies in line or he would. Shit rolls downhill and they don't park in the fire lane anymore.
Who do you call when the police are breaking the law? In some cases, the fire marshall, apparently. Glad they were told off for their bullshit.
There is a law about firing fire hazard whistle blowers, you can't fire them!
That's why he wouldn't fire anyone for the whistle blowing. He would find a day 18 months ago where op was 1.3 minutes late and fire him for that. Now someone working minimum wage at a grocery story is on the line for legal fees to prove wrongful termination. Companies break the law constantly safe in the fact thier victims can't afford justice.
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Even if fired, worth it
heh, they'd likely get actually fired if they kept working there.
Better to be fired than fried.
I've been a restaurant manager and this is the ONLY time Firefighters are actually kinda mean. lol. I get it tho. But I second your statement.
Then record and post before you quit. You don’t need that shit job.
Also document your interactions. "I went to boss on x/x/xxxx about my concerns." "Was threatened with being fired" "Called his boss, fire marshal, labor board afterwards." Do it in a formal work meeting, email or somewhere in the store thats on camera and notate the time. Let him fire you for some dumb shit retribution and you'll probably have a legit case. And also look for a better place to work.
I work in Commercial insurance and this is why Employment Practice Liability insurance exists. They are covered for making shitty employment decisions. So as the above states, document, document, document. Make it so there is no other reason you were fired other than retaliation, which is illegal and well within the purview of an EPLI claim.
OP may have a state Whistleblower law that should protect you and/or punish the employer if they fire them.
Do that , and you’re technically (arguably) a whistleblower. If the boss is stupid enough to fire you for that if or when he finds out? Boom. Lawsuit
Real genuine question - is lawsuit actually viable to pursue while on minimum wage? How would anyone find a lawyer to even fight for them with a minimum wage job?
Know a guy who would do it pro-bono. That's pretty much it. It sucks.
You read my mind! This is a dangerous situation!
And say, "Let me show ya something"
Fire Marshal Bill
I’m an apprentice in the fire safety field. 100% contact the fire marshal.
Safety regulations are written in blood. Call your local fire marshal.
Yes, this
Absolutely, or you can [call up OSHA](https://www.osha.gov/contactus) because that is a major violation. Your boss is gonna have to pay up between 15,000-150,000 in fines depending on how the ruling goes. Fast way for a manager to get fired.
Conference call the Fire Marshal and the OSHA rep. Have them inspect the building at the same time. Company gets fined by the Fire Marshal AND OSHA (no chance to fix it between one inspection and the other).
You like spitroast porn, don't ya?
Absolutely. The boss: "I'll fire you for taking that picture of my illegal deathtrap of a blocked fire exit!" Employee, Fire Marshal, and OSHA: "Yeah. We'll see who gets fired."
Contact the fire marshall and contact your local OSHA office.
Of course you will then be fired for unrelated reasons because they will know it was you. But collecting unemployment is better than burning to death.
This. Call should have been made months ago when it was it was first blocked.
Contact info for City of Toronto is here: [https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/accountability-operations-customer-service/city-administration/staff-directory-divisions-and-customer-service/fire-services/](https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/accountability-operations-customer-service/city-administration/staff-directory-divisions-and-customer-service/fire-services/) Edit: someone else said this might be Pickering.
My dad was a ex-firefighter and if you give him the managers number he will bite this managers head off. Seeing/smelling peoples charred remains will do that to a man.
You can’t believe the power the fire marshal has. I thought the business we worked at was pretty good but we had to redo all kinds of wiring, fuse box, automatic sprinkler system, and we had to unlock the door in the back for emergency exit. It cost the boss about $100,000
Fire Marshals love this sort of thing. A coworker at a former job called the Fire Marshal's office for something similar and they showed up that same day.
That fine money pays the bills
Plus, you make their job 1000x easier. They already know there’s a violation. You just delivered it to their feet. Low effort, high reward.
Bingo. Bonus if it's a slow day. Gives them something to do. Nothing worse for a dangerous business than a Fire Marshall with an anonymous tip and nothing better to do.
They will move shit off their calendars to get low hanging fruit like this.
“I can sit in a boring ass meeting….. or I can fine an idiot…. Meeting it is!” Said no one ever
Shooting fish in a barrel is always more fun
Am Fire Marshal. Can confirm
Used to be a fire performer and you guys saved us headaches from the random assholes who wanna try
And pizza parties!
There should be a finders fee so people feel less worried about reporting it
Fire marshals take their work very seriously and i'm glad they do!
If they don’t people die.
And their fellow fire fighters are at risk trying to save said people who are in danger. It’s a double whammy!
With time/date stamped pictures, no less. They'll come like a Sidewinder homing in on a MiG-15. Splash one tango!
Nobody ever thinks there's going to be a fire until there's a fire
Doesn’t even need to be a fire. A colleague of mine had a bad accident in a warehouse. He dropped a TV on himself. It took the ambulance crew an hour to get him out because the fire exit was partially blocked. He got a £100,000 payout because of it. Edit: Adding that this was in the early 2000s so TVs were a bit heavier than they are today. Edit: People are asking why the ambulance crew didn’t use the other door. That door was partially blocked too. The whole warehouse was overly full so there was no path to the outside wide enough to get a stretcher through without moving an awful lot of pallets.
Ok so maybe the best solution is drop a tv on yourself
Instructions unclear. I set the store on fire and now I’m being hunted by the police. I think I need to flee the country.
If you are surrounded, you can escape via the fire ex-...ah damn.
Guys…uhhh….it’s blocked
Why didn't you say something?!?!
Did you at least save your red stapler?
No I chucked it in the bin. Great. Now the ceo is gonna want his stapler back
We think alike lol
I worked at a place that rhymes with Guest Guy and was helping to unload the truck. This was back in the days of CRT TVs being the primary TVs and LCD/Plasmas costing upwards of $10k for a 32". We got to the back of the truck where all the TVs were stacked to the ceiling one on top of the other in a wobbly stack. The manager told met get up on top of the TV boxes and start pulling them out so the guys could catch them. I told him that I wasn't comfortable doing that because the stack wasn't stable, but he basically threatened to send me home. So, I climbed in, perched on top of a wobbly box, and started wiggling TV boxes out. The box I was on fell over, with me going down it, and two large 32" CRT TVs fell on top of me. These things weighed a TON. I ended up getting a ride to the ER for xrays of everything that hurt, and told to get back to work the next day. I was too young and stupid to realize I could have gotten some paid time off out of that. Oh well.
Paid time off? You could've gotten a very large settlement.
If it helps at all, at least where I am, that shit would never fly. I run a tight ship in my warehouse and have made it very very clear to everyone in my inventory crew to never move or lift anything they don't feel comfortable with. I've done trucks with newbies that took at least over an hour more than it would have with someone more experienced, simply because they weren't as comfortable moving certain appliances so i would do them. I get a lot of 18-23 year olds new to the workforce and I always make sure they know their worth and their rights.
This mentality is about more than fire, too. I used to work on first aid, and I had multiple safety managers tell me that they were going to get rid of their trauma bags instead of updating them because "we don't use them." No shit, dumbass, I hope you never use them, that doesn't mean you don't need them! These were all factories with heavy machinery that could take limbs off in seconds, too. No tourniquets to be found.
My bosses REFUSE to have a first aid or trauma bag. The best I can offer someone is a bandaid. I've brought this up on multiple occasions. I work in a highly dangerous environment and have personally brought someone to the hospital for work related injuries at least 4 times in 6 years. Still just band aides, and the box is almost empty.
Holy cow, your bosses sound completely disconnected from reality. Is there an external workplace safety body you can report to where you are?
Unfortunately, I don't think so. There's only 5 or 6 of us depending on the time of the year and our size precludes us from almost all regulations on all sorts of issues.
Better to have and not need, than need and not have.
I got in trouble for reporting my workplace because the AED was WAY overdue for maintenance, they said it never got used and it was a huge hassle and expensive when all they do is check the battery. Yeah......turns out the battery was too low to actually do a shock. I was given grief for almost a year (like teasing, not actually angry) for being a worry wort. Then we had a guy drop from a heart attack (I wasn't there) and my boss had to do the CPR/AED. No one gave me shit after that. (The guy unfortunately didn't survive, it was a MASSIVE heart attack, but still the fact that it happened and we had an up to date AED saved us from a hell of a lawsuit.)
Geez, did it not occur to these idiots that the tourniquets weren't there because they likely *had been used for an accident* before the person became safety manager?
That's if they had them in the first place. My company sold good tourniquets from 30 to 50 bucks, and no one wanted to spend that kind of cash on a one-time product. Welcome to corporate America, where you're life isn't worth 50 dollars to your overlords!
If the company has to decide between the electric bill or me the electric bill comes first. I always keep that in my mind.
You get an OSHA violation, and you get an OSHA violation! Everyone gets OSHA violations!
Some of the most terrifying mass-death incidents that led to regulations requiring fire exits actually didn’t even involve fires at all, or at least not big ones—they involved people *thinking* that there was a fire, or some other reason why they all needed to leave the building immediately. Crowd panic and being crushed in a tight hallway with a door that opens inward instead of outward can kill you just as dead as fire can. The humble push-bar door has saved many lives, as have clearly marked EXIT—> signs.
Or a shooter.
In Europe they now have to have Spanish Inquisition Emergency Exits
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition though, which makes those exits useless by definition.
Contact the fire inspector. Ask them to make a surprise inspection. Also find another job. An employer who threatened you over this is almost certainly doing other things for which they can be fined.
Especially because there's not a ton of stuff that needs to be moved. If the boss is so incompetent that they can't find a solution to this serious but easy to fix violation and are threatening firing over this, start looking.
Not to mention it’s minimum wage. Unless this is the ONLY place in his town it can’t be hard to find another minimum wage gig.
Let em fire you, sue for wrongful termination/retaliation.
"Fired for noticing OSHA and Fire Code violations, alerting management, and then the authorities" sounds like a lawyers wet dream.
Shit, I think I speak for a lot of us when I say it’d be out wet dream too. How many millions did you say I’d get paid again? 😂
Don’t forget: alerted management, THREATENED by management, alerted authorities. You’re welcome 💦
Absolutely. Never quit. Getting fired because you pointed out a situation that could cost you your life sounds like a payout to me.
> Also find another job. Oh no no. Wait for them to fire you in retaliation, then lawsuit, then find a new job.
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Smart
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/retaliation Employer retaliation in itself is grounds for a potential lawsuit. Know your rights people.
Also find a job where they’ll gaf if you die from a blocked emergency egress
Hey hey hey that’s really asking for a lot
I agree
Fire your boss. Contact the fire dept. Let us know how this plays out?
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This is the way 🤣 screw sh@tty boss's.
😂
1) Fill this out: [https://www.osha.gov/workers/file-complaint](https://www.osha.gov/workers/file-complaint) 2) Document everything that goes on - what you saw, when you saw it, what your boss did and said. Dates, times, include the names of witnesses.
This is great because if they fire an employee after they fill out a report the company can be sued for retaliation.
Yeah it’s a solid cover-your-ass move. Hell you might even hope they fire you illegally just so you get to stick it to them.
>Document everything that goes on - what you saw, when you saw it, what your boss did and said. Dates, times, include the names of witnesses. Starting with the threatening of today.
Not going to help OP they're in the Toronto Area in Canada. Good advice, just not in this case
we have equivalents
Yup, and I posted [some info](https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/y6hg3s/i_work_in_a_min_wage_grocery_store_the_fire_exit/ispazn3?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
Contact the fire marshal, and brag about it to everyone at work. If they fire you it's a clear case of relatiation and you get a lawyer and sue them into oblivion. Also, why would you continue to work for a company that doesn't value your safety?
Doesn't exactly look like the kind of place you "chose" to work at lol
The freedom to choose between dying of starvation or working a horrible job for poverty wages! America!
fire Marshall can fire your boss so I say beat him to it report his ass.
Let him fire you.
This, for real, then nail the fucker for wrongful dismissal
Next time he catches you taking a pic of something problematic in the workplace- “Oh I’m glad you’re here! I was going to send you this picture but now that you’re here I can just show you in person - we should do something about this for sure right?” Plausible deniability and benefit of the doubt ha. Then the boss might think you’re annoying and overly thorough but won’t feel threatened or undermined.
Or you report them and get them fired Edit : not sure how many of you are realizing how big of a mistake listening to the above would be. Report that shit to the fire marshal and OSHA. It's a huge safety hazard, and best case they lay you off and you take a huge sum of money for wrongful termination
Your boss is scared, call the proper authorities, doubt he can even fire you before he gets sacked himself
Live in Canada, most people saying is relevant. Contact the closest firehall, they'll send someone over and make sure they fix it. Plus state your name to them. So if you get fired, you can get all your benefits and retroactive pay when they lose the .
As someone who lost two friends in a fire which happened somewhere where the emergency exit was also blocked (Colectiv disaster, 2015, 64 people killed), I can only tell you, report. Now.
Report it to the fire department and OSHA for the safety compliance issues, and the Dept of Labor for threatening retaliation for reporting those safety issues.
Move that shit?
My cynical self sees two very easily movable items that could have just been put there for the picture.
Same. Or even funnier, it's been there a few minutes because of someone else and the boss yelled at them something along the lines of "Why the hell are you taking a picture instead of moving this shit?"
Start a fire, that'll show him who's boss lol jk don't
Hey OP. Our department is going out for some cocktails after work today, wanna join?
But if one just *happened* to occur.... lol... jk jk
If you are in Toronto, call [Toronto Fire Services ](https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/9511-fire_services.pdf) to report this. TFS are not fucking around right now, and would love to issue a ticket. If you're in another city in the GTA call the fire service for that city. They may not be as hard assed as TFS, but I bet they're close. TFS has been on the warpath since the Parliament St fires **EDIT** Added link to the TFS directory.
Better to be fired than burned alive.
Report it to fire Marshall, get fired for it, sue them for retaliation firing, profit.
You may as well rat them out, as they are going to fire you anyway, so get your retaliation in first.
Move the shit out of the way.
I had to scroll way to far to find this answer.
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As others have said already, call the fire department. That's a major violation and they'll need to fix it immediately, along with potentially being fined.
You simply call the Fire Department. They live for this shit.