Fire Door Solutions, a company based in Stillwell, Kansas, has introduced a barricade system designed to keep active shooters out of school classrooms. The product is called Fire Door Armor. It mounts on the back of a school or business door.
The company had been working on the device for about a year. Then the Parkland school shooting, which killed 17, pushed it to rush production. CEO Jeff Perry said his staff feels the weight of such attacks. Thinking about how a secured building might have changed the outcome, he said lives could have been saved.
Company president Dave Geenens called it the first intelligent breachable barricade system on the market. When someone flips the lever, the door is secured against up to 5,000 pounds of pressure. At the same time, a Wi-Fi signal alerts the rest of the school to the danger. According to Geenens, a whole campus can be locked down within seconds.
The barricade is not meant to trap anyone. Schools and first responders will have a way to get past it. That matters, since fire codes have stopped schools from installing door products in the past. The company says it designed the device with fire door compliance in mind.
Interest came quickly. In the days after the announcement, the company received more than 200 calls from school districts.
The cost is $50 per month per door. Donnie Thomas, president of Fire Door Armor, said school budgets and grants take time to come through. Even so, he said, parents and community members are willing to pay for it now, so the company is working with parent-teacher organizations.
