I used to carry one, but I don't anymore. When I did, it was a mini-Bic. I took a very small piece of duct tape and rolled it onto itself, making a tight roll about the thickness of a pencil lead. I then cut this down to a small length so that I could bend it into a "U" shape and put it under the gas switch (or whatever you call that part you depress to release the gas). Then I took another small piece of duct tape and put that over the side of the gas switch, holding that "U" in place so the switch wouldn't be accidentally depressed in my pocket. Next, I took two large rubber bands (cut from bicycle inner tube) and attached the mini-Bic to a P-51 can opener (or was it the P-38? ... whichever is the larger of the two). Then the P-51 was attached to my keyring with a small split ring. Kind of a hokey setup, but it worked. And I had the can opener and ranger bands as bonus pieces of equipment.

I'm still quite concerned about these electromagnetic door locks of yours. Have you asked anyone in charge about this situation? The locks may actually disengage when the fire alarm goes off. Another thing I would personally want to know is whether the doors unlock when the power goes out. Some don't, that is, they "fail secure".

This situation bothers me because I remember feeling really sorry for some folks when I read a news article a few years back about some office fire. For security reasons, the doors in the stairwell can't be opened from inside the stairwell once they close behind you. A number of office workers were going down the stairs to escape but ran into thick smoke so they had to retreat back upstairs. Unfortunately, they couldn't gain access to any of the floors and they died in the stairwell from the smoke. I understand the security concerns for setting things up that way, but that's tragic.