I’d like to put a locked gate at the top of our driveway. This would be the best way to keep our land secure, and we have started to have problems with people coming on our land. Mostly we haven’t noticed, but someone tore out some fencing on someone else’s property, and our driveway is one of the few access points.
But I don’t know what to do about the police and other emergency vehicles that may need to get down our driveway even if we can’t get there to open the gate. Certainly there must be a solution, since many people have gates on their driveways. What would a fire truck do, if the house was burning down and the gate was closed?
Automated gates will often have a Knox box for emergency access. There are also alternative means of emergency entry, which may be required by local ordinances.
The Knox Box is a good idea, provided your local EMA has knowledge of the system.
You should call your local fire department or police department and ask what they suggest.
In many cases, you will program a code just for them and let them know. Most gated communities and apartment complexes will give the locals a special code so they can get in. I’ll often hear on the radio a fire truck or ambulance calling dispatch for the code. If the info has been given to the deparment ahead of time, it’s just a couple of keystrokes for the dispatcher to find it for a given address.
If all that fails and there are flames visible, a gate is no match for a firetruck bumper, trust me!
Make sure that your gate guy installs remote access in the house so you can just hit a button in there whenever it’s needed.
When I was a nightwatchman at a shopping mall, the instructions in case of a fire alarm were to go down to the underground access and open the gate first thing, to reduce the expense of the fire truck going through whatever the gate was doing.
In rural areas at least, each engine usually has a big bolt cutter. Cuts through the chain or padlock quite easily. Not familiar with rolling gates, as they are not found in snowy climates.
Something else to think about - in home fire alarms. If you’re not home when the alarm goes off, hope that someone with a key responds quickly. If FF can’t see clearly inside to verify there’s no smoke present, out comes the sledgehammer to open the door or window.