I think the illusion of having reached a dead end is fascinating, but in any good game design, the trick is to merely conceal the escape hatch. There's always more than one way out of a situation. You simply have to apply logic to the situation and find the convenient but easy to overlook alternate route back to the place where they can get the key and the fuses and do it properly.
And incidentally, I don't remember any such dead end in Shivers. There was always a way out of every situation. You simply had to look around long enough. That's what made it better than a mere puzzle game. The exploration and the interaction with the environment was paramount.
That said, a true dead end that strands a player and forces them to restart is a dirty trick indeed. If nothing else, you should instigate a 'death sequence', and then send them back to the part before they entered the room, and give them an 'intimation' that they shouldn't enter empty handed, even if you have to give them sledgehammer hints.
The more traditional method is just to make them pick up the important item(s) in question. 'Oh, an arcane and unusually shaped key, sitting conveniently in this desk drawer, not far from the secret panel. I'll bet that will come in handy. Better take that with me now.' *picks up key, drops in inventory* usually suffices.
But the best is just to 'reveal' the hidden escape route.
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