Most walk-in cold rooms with a single hinged door have an Inside Release that is similar to a regular doorknob (seen on the photos released by the Rosemont Public Safety Department) except this doorknob cannot turn in either direction, cannot be pulled towards you or move in any other way.
For security reasons this doorknobs are only meant to go one way, and that is in. You just need to push and the door will open.
This is a precautionary measure, by regulation cold rooms have this emergency latches on the inside, that either glow on the dark or have their own individual light turned on by default. Theres really no way to miss it.
If she was still conscious when she was locked in she would have seen the doorknob. Even if the room was pitched black.
It was cold, that means the motor was running, the power was on, the emergency lights on the inside would have been on too.
Even in the apparent intoxicated state she wouldve been able to open the door and get out.
This recessed inside release doorknobs are purposefully made for emergency situations like this one. Expect people in panic trying to get out, therefore they dont require much knowledge to operate, they can only move one way and it doesnt require much force either.
One can only expect this situations where people get accidentally locked in very often since also, by regulation, the doors are supposed to closed quickly to preserve the contents of the cold room in sanitary conditions.
That is the whole purpose of having one in the first place, so of course you have to put something on the inside so people can easily and quickly get back out again and dont panic in the process, and to make things easier you have lights on the way back to the door and the emergency latch.
This is for the modular walk-in cold rooms with the hinged door like the one in the photos. I dont know about the ones that have the sliding door.
Whats really interesting is if the kitchen is under construction, why in the world they have an empty cold room working?!
That doesnt make any sense, this things are crazy expensive and if the hotel can cut electric costs in the meantime, I dont see the reason to keep the motor running, and for what it looked, neither do them thats why it seemed a long time since they cleaned up.
Also, cold rooms dont get to North Pole temperatures in 15 min.
In case your thinking she somehow found, in her state, the switch.
Turned it on thinking is the room light.
Opened the outside safety lock with perfectly manicured nails (also, by regulation, if its going out of service, you have to put a lock on the door. Theres no way that door was wide open, no hospitality business wants to pay millions for accidentally missing employees. That door was locked).
Walked inside looking for the bed to lay down.
Realize this is no guest room.
Turned around and found the door was already closing.
Fumble her way back but by then, it was too late.
It was darkness all around her.
She couldnt possibly find the door again in a 3.1m³ room.
And that is why she didnt see the emergency lighted latch and was unable to get out and freeze to death. Seriously?!
Im not saying it was foul play, but something definitely happened in there to this girl that she was unable to open that door from the inside.
Maybe she slipped and hit her head, maybe she thought this is as good as its going to get, I will lay down for a minute, fallen asleep and that was it (hopefully).
Cold rooms require hours (depends on the model and the size, sometimes up to 48 hrs) to actually get to freezing temperatures. The walls are not your typical walls, the floor is also not just linoleum, under that, there are many materials layered one over the next.
Also some hospitality cold rooms arent that big that one can actually lose the way back. They actually very well optimized in size because of the high operating costs.
Really, she wouldve seen the emergency latch and somehow opened it.
Even intoxicated, one can remember what doorknobs are for.