Fire Blanket Plans--New Invention!

X. Garage Blankets. Like in figures G, H and I, the garage to the left requires nothing exceptional in blanket strategies, except that the molly bolt anchor (if there even is one-read on) in the driveway needs to be "countersunk" beneath the surface, as in the insert, to prevent tires from being bruised. This would mean casting in the original driveway concrete, for convenience, or using a concrete drill and cementing the anchor in place when you deal with an already existing driveway. However, if you have a garage door that is on the down-slope side of a roof, you'll need two cables (and motors) rather than one, because cars have to get in/out when there are no fires. An additional exception in this situation would (probably) be to have the blanket close to the garage at the bottom in order to avoid having cables and grooves for cables extending into the driveway (see figure L for reference). This means that either the blanket anchor is immediately in front of the motor, or it might even be dispensed with altogether. In such a scenario, only the top cable flush-mounting hook with electromagnetic release will be used and the bottom one will be replaced by the motor itself-once the weight rod gets to the motor it shuts off. This avoids all the inconveniences of the anchor-and-dual-hooks method.
Y. Alternate Fire Blanket Cylinder Lock. Note that in figure V the electromagnetic blanket cylinder release mechanism needs to be operating the whole time the blanket is either being unrolled or rerolled. But with the electromagnetic door-lock-styled release in figure Y and Z, you can have a release that not only manages not to get in the way of an end-mounted cylinder motor, but also manages to make it unnecessary for people to keep the release electromagnet on for more then a couple of seconds during unrolling—and it needn't be used at all during rerolling. (See the S part of figure G to see how a nub on the cylinder in combination with an electromagnetic door lock is similar in operation to figure Y's release, except that the former is stopping the cylinder from pivoting while the latter is stopping the weight rod and blanket from moving until release.) Note that the weight rod, when being retrieved as the blanket is being rerolled, simply depresses the spring-loaded bolt of the electromagnetic door lock mechanism—like a door would—as it is settling back into its perch. All this is simply a new use for an old technology.

U. Deck Fire Blanket. If there's a large deck or if the roof that partially overhangs the deck isn't sloping towards the deck, a deck fire blanket may be desired. The cylinder would be mounted on the deck butted up against the house, with its weight rod against the deck and its cable mounted on the bottom of the weight rod so as to allow the cable to fit in the deck's cable groove. This would preclude people tripping on the cable when they were walking on the deck, since it would be down in a groove out of the way. See the top figure above the U label. The lower two figures show the deck blanketing strategy: the middle figure shows the cable setup before a fire alert and the bottom figure shows the cable setup after the cable flush-mounting hooks with electromagnetic release have let go of their cables and the motor has taken up the slack and is about to reel down the blanket. Note: even though the cable is shown above the deck in the diagram, that was for purposes of illustration so you can see where the cable is located; the actual cable would be still in its cable groove. The deck blanketing idea might be used as an alternative to the scenario in figure Q, where even though the grooved rods are probably only Ľ" to 1/3" thick, having them extend out from the roof that way might be experienced as non-aesthetic, though they're not a head-clearance problem, because it would be well over the heads of deck dwellers. See figures Q and W.
V. Electromagnetic Blanket Cylinder Release Mechanism. The cylinder cannot unroll until this mechanism has been activated from a button inside the house, because the roller's end has a pin welded sideways on it that allows turning to be prevented by the electromagnet's bolt. Similarly, the blanket cannot reroll without activating this release.

W. Cable Flush-mounting Hooks With Electromagnetic Release. The electromagnet's bolt keeps the cable locked in place until the release is activated, which pulls the bolt aside and frees the cable so that blanket reeling may proceed unimpeded. A door-lock-styled release, like in figures Y and Z, would probably be an even better design for these release hooks, since you wouldn't have to activate the electromagnet in order to replace the cable in them after a fire. The cables could be clicked into place; an extra person in the house operating release switches would be unnecessary.