In cities with older buildings converted to residential use, it’s common to see fire escape stairs built on the outside to let the residents flee in case of a fire. Typically there are platforms with stairs they can access from their window. They walk down the stairs and then there’s a ladder at the bottom they can release to climb down to the sidewalk. Do the residents of those buildings get any training or practice time on them to get familiar with the whole process? It seems like that’s something which might be a little tricky to figure out for the first time in a real fire with all the stress and panic making it hard to think.
I’ve lived in several of those kinds of buildings, and never received any “official” training. But they’re really not that hard to figure out. Many of the residents in the buildings I lived in used them as de facto balconies, and even as an extra stairway. The ladders are counterweighted so they stay in whatever position they’re moved to. If you’ve never tried one I could see it being a little intimidating, especially in an emergency, but they’re fairly self evident.
Eta:
I’ve come across 2 different styles. One with a straight ladder. And one with a cantilevered staircase like this
When I lived in such a building we all used the fire escape as a de facto balcony. We didn’t usually walk all the way to the street on them, but once you reach the ladder part it descends pretty easily to the street, no strength required you just start walking on it and it lowers.
But no, we never got any training or practice.
I was looking at them the last time I was in NYC and I saw some ladders which looked like they were held up by some kind of hook looped on the top rung. The hook came out almost horizontally. It looked like you would need to lift the ladder slightly to release the hook and it would swing back towards the building. Then it seemed like the ladder would be released and you could pull the ladder down. I got the impression that if you tried to just pull the ladder down, the hook would just stay attached to the top rung. Do any fire escape ladders work like that or did I misunderstand the design?
I can only speak for the ones I actually had any experience with. I’m sure there are multiple designs with different details. The one you describe might have been designed to prevent people at street level from pulling down the ladder and gaining access to the building.
The thing about those exterior fire escapes is there was never any good regulations about them. So there were many different designs. And most cities’ fire regulations made them obsolete by the 70’s. So any remaining escapes are geriatric. It could be that what you saw was done as a kind of retrofit to fix a ladder that wouldn’t stay up by itself, or was even an original design for that specific building. I’ve never seen what you describe, but I have seen bungee cords and wooden chocks on decrepit escapes to hold them in place.
I lived in several such buildings in NYC. Never used them for anything but putting houseplants on them in the summer. Certainly never received any instructions.
In my last apartment there, the apartment was on the second floor. In order to deter break-ins, I installed a large air conditioner into the window that led to the fire escape. Was that illegal?
Probably. It certainly would have been a safety problem if you needed to get out of a burning building.
Wouldn’t the exits to the fire escapes be via a public area (hallways, etc.)? I wouldn’t like to have to open my door to the hallway to let people access the fire escape (accessible only from my apartment) in case of emergency.
I’m not up on fire escapes, but it probably (back then) had to do with two means of egress, dead ends, and length of travel. “Back then” in New York City was 1860 and tenement houses, and later with the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. (Random cite.) Tenements typically had a single public stairwell open (no fire doors) to each floor, with an apartment in front and back. A fire in one apartment could reach the stairwell and be a chimney to all floors. People couldn’t escape, or jump out windows. Fire escapes were the solution from each apartment. Triangle Shirtwaist if I recall had other issues (locked exit doors).
There are exceptions, of course, and each city had their own rules. I’ve seen a couple where you escape thru an alarmed door into another space not your own. It’s not freely given (by building department on down to the owner of the other space) so I try not to depend it. If there was a fire there are bigger problems than letting someone escape thru my office/apartment.
When I lived in a ninth-floor apartment, there was one main stairwell in the middle of the building, and then there was a door off of the common hallway to a concrete balcony, which led to another stairwell in a connected but independent enclosed masonry structure (i.e., this second stairwell was designed to remain standing even if the main building collapsed). When going up to my apartment, I usually went halfway up in the main stairwell, then switched to the secondary one for the other half of the ascent (the two stairwells had opposite winding, and I got a bit dizzy going all the way in one).
My impression from looking from the street was that generally each apartment could get to the fire escape from one of their own windows. For example, the fire escape would be built between two apartments so that the left and right apartments could both access the same fire escape from their own windows. But I would assume that if that kind of design wasn’t possible, there would be a public fire escape accessible from a public hallway window.
I agree. There’s no way I can see needing to enter someone else’s apartment to evacuate the building. What happens if that resident is out of town when there’s a fire?
I’ve never received any instructions and I’ve seen a couple of odd “fire escapes”. When I taught at Columbia in 1962-64, I was assigned to an office in the 4th floor of an old building whose “fire escape” consisted of a rope ladder to be thrown out the window and climbed down. I once spent a few nights in a dorm attached to the University of Louvan(-la neuve) a brand new university. The escape consisted of a steel ladder firmly attached to a side of the building and just reachable from my room that was on something like the 7th floor. No instructions.
Only two times I had to use the egress door thru another space. One was technically a dorm (each apartment had bedrooms, small common space with kitchen) converted from a 4-story apartment walk-up, so single owner with student tenants. The door was alarmed using a crash-bar. Press the bar and the alarm sounds. There were only two. There was no way to hop out the window as it led to a lightwell and no egress. Owner agreed, probably because it was student dorms and not a private rental apartments. Second time was one office with places-of-assembly and only one egress – major no-no. Eventually another tenant changed and we were able to carve out a different egress to a common hallway.
It’s not common; it was maybe a dozen years apart as well as on different continents, but it can happen. Again, the alternate is getting trapped in a fire.
Missed the edit window. In general, each apartment needs two means of egress. Usually via the hallway and stair, and by the window. In larger apartments, there are multiple stairwells, but the distance between them are remote from each other. Sprinkled buildings give you more options. If there is a fire HERE, can you escape from THERE.
When I lived in such a building every apartment had window access to the fire escape, you wouldn’t need to go through anyone else’s apartment to get to it. Meanwhile, the interior hallway was just that: interior. There was no way to give that hallway access to the building exterior without punching through one of the apartments.