# Fire Axes
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 5, 2005, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882 "2005-10-05T14:26:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882/1 "2005-10-05T14:26:23Z")
Just a quick one:
In many action-based films, games and TV programmes, characters find fire axes available in boxes on the walls of large buildings, easily obtainable by breaking the glass, rather like a fire alarm. These axes are then almost always used as weapons in a subsequent fight.
Is it really the case that these lethal weapons are so easily available? I have never seen one in the UK, nor on my single visit to the States. I can’t imagine one would really want amateur fire-fighters wielding these things.
Is their existence just a cinematic device?
ps. The plural isn’t ‘axs’ in the US, is it?
---
### Author:  [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882/2 "2005-10-05T14:39:31Z")
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them in the UK somewhere, although not for a while.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882/3 "2005-10-05T14:43:08Z")
Pretty sure they had them at the school I attended.
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882/4 "2005-10-05T14:44:51Z")
Never seen one? They are everywhere around here. Hotels, office buildings, etc. They seem to be phasing them out lately, as I don’t think I have seen them much in newer construction, but they are there. But they aren’t a cinematic device by any means.
---
### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882/5 "2005-10-05T14:57:54Z")
They used to be code-required items in certain situations, just like many buildings were required to have fire escapes and metal fire doors. But newer codes don’t require them anymore, I suppose because modern buildings are built differently.
---
### Author:  [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882/6 "2005-10-05T14:59:35Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Never seen one? They are everywhere around here. Hotels, office buildings, etc. They seem to be phasing them out lately, as I don’t think I have seen them much in newer construction, but they are there. But they aren’t a cinematic device by any means.
That seems fairly bizarre. Fire hoses and extinguishers I can understand. And they have tiny little hammers in UK trains to break the windows in an emergency. But how often would a layman (non-fireman) need to hack down a door? And how wise would it even be to try?
---
### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882/7 "2005-10-05T15:22:39Z")
They do seem to be falling out of favor as building codes change. An axe would be of little use in this building as the walls are concrete and the doors are steel.
---
### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882/8 "2005-10-05T15:41:27Z")
> [@Staggerlee](#):
>
> That seems fairly bizarre. Fire hoses and extinguishers I can understand. And they have tiny little hammers in UK trains to break the windows in an emergency. But how often would a layman (non-fireman) need to hack down a door? And how wise would it even be to try?
Well, they’re not really for laymen. They’re for firemen who find themselves in a burning building with the need to hack down a door and they don’t want to go back out to their truck to get an axe.
---
### Author:  [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882/9 "2005-10-05T15:51:47Z")
We had a blue one in my father’s office in Vienna.
---
### Author:  [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882/10 "2005-10-05T15:57:23Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> Well, they’re not really for laymen. They’re for firemen who find themselves in a burning building with the need to hack down a door and they don’t want to go back out to their truck to get an axe.
That explains it, thank you ever so.
---
### Author:  [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882/11 "2005-10-05T17:44:29Z")
Where _else_ would you find a lethal weapon in a hurry?
I for one, welcome our new axe-wielding overlords…
---
### Author:  [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-axes/324882/12 "2005-10-06T00:08:36Z")
I would have to class the ax along with the standpipe hose system and the fire extinguishers found in buildings, as for tenants only.
A Fire Department will arrive at a fire floor with there own equiptment. They will NEVER rely on fire tools put in the hallway of a business or residential building by the buildings owner. Anything like that, which is open to the general publics use, could not be relied on to be in workable condition.
Rich building or poor, these tools are constantly vandalized or stolen. They are in no way, anything that a Fire Department would even remotely, depend on.
YOU, the civilian who lives or works on a floor that has these items…it’s up to YOU to notify building management about any problems you may see. As I said, they are there for the tenants use, in a panic situation, if you can’t wait for professional help to arrive.