Even though emergency exit doors remain locked from the outside, they’re vulnerable to criminals who know what they’re doing. Many standard exit doors, including hollow metal doors, were never designed to resist forced entry techniques used by professional burglars.
Criminals often target these doors because they’re:
- Located in low-visibility areas behind or beside buildings
- Poorly monitored by employees or surveillance systems
- Constructed from thin-gauge metal or aluminum, easy to deform or cut
- Equipped with basic locks or latches that can be pried or drilled open
Even more heavy-duty metal exit doors can be compromised with enough determination and the right tools. Common forced-entry methods include:
Prying
Using crowbars or pry bars, intruders wedge open gaps between the door and frame, bending the metal and disengaging the latch.
Drilling
Attackers use power drills or hole saws to compromise lock mechanisms or create openings that allow manual manipulation of the latch.
Cutting
Gas-powered and electric saws can slice through standard steel or hollow metal doors within minutes, creating large enough openings to gain full access.
Ramming and Impact
Burglars may use sledgehammers, battering rams, or even vehicles to break through doors that lack reinforced cores or frames.
In short, while a commercial emergency exit door may meet fire safety codes, it may fail to meet modern security standards, leaving your business exposed to intrusion, theft, and property damage.
