A Clear Path Out
Window Hardware Helps Reduce Risks, Allowing for Quick Escapes in Emergencies
by Kathy Krafka Harkema
Fall is the perfect time to prepare your home and loved ones for how to practice fire safety in the home. As the industry prepares for the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) 2026 Fire Prevention Week, October 4-10, and its official focus on fire risks from lithium-ion batteries, fire safety professionals must not lose sight of a traditional, structural hazard: emergency egress. While the public spotlight centers on “Safe Charging is a Superpower,” equal attention should also be paid to primary and secondary exit points. For facility managers and code officials, ensuring that doors and windows serve as viable lifelines—rather than obstructed, paint-stuck potential hazards—remains a critical compliance challenge to also be addressed.
Doors and windows are the primary and secondary exits in the home in the event of emergencies. That’s why it’s important to keep the path to them free from items like furniture or clutter that could present trip or fall hazards in the need to escape. That’s especially important because most home fires occur at night, when you’re crawling in the dark to stay low to escape as the home may be rapidly filled with smoke or flames. It’s also important to ensure you and your loved ones test your windows in advance to make sure they aren’t painted or nailed shut, in the event you need to quickly open them to escape.
Window hardware can play a key role in home safety. Certain types of window hardware, called window opening control devices (WOCDs) are designed to limit window sash openings to less than four inches, to allow for ventilation when needed but to help reduce the risk of falls through open windows by children or others. WOCDs must be releasable by either two independent, single-action devices, or one dual-action device. That way, after the release of the WOCD, the sash could be fully opened as may be needed for emergency escape or rescue needs.
WOCDs that meet the requirements for ASTM F2090, Standard Specification for Window Fall Prevention Devices with Emergency Escape (Egress) Release Mechanisms, automatically reset to when the sash is closed so that the sash opening resets to less than four inches the next time it is opened.
To provide greater understanding and consistency in how WOCDs are installed on windows, the Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance (FGIA) offers a specification for manufacturers to help guide their proper placement. The publication, called AAMA 950-25, Specification for Window Opening Control Devices (WOCDs) Installed on Operable Windows, provides a method for evaluating an operable window with an installed WOCD. AAMA 950 also provides information to evaluate factory-installed WOCDs, as well as those specified by the window manufacturer as a field installed kit to add a WOCD to a window after it has left the factory.
To learn more about WOCDs and their purpose, FGIA invites consumers to download AAMA/WDMA TB-24-01, Understanding Window Opening Control Devices (WOCDs), an informative publication that provides information to help them understand the purpose of WOCDs, how they function and how to operate them, as well as how to distinguish them from other types of window hardware with which they may be commonly confused, including visuals.
Industry representatives may use this resource to educate customers as well. Ask those on your sales team to share this information with those customers and let them know that taking time now to test their doors and windows to ensure they open quickly and easily can help keep them and their loved ones safer in the event of a fire. Likewise, understanding the purpose of WOCDs and learning how to quickly release them in the event of an emergency is equally important and time well spent.
