A
fire escape is a special kind of
emergency exitAn emergency exit in a structure is a special exit for emergencies such as a fire: the combined use of regular and special exits allows for faster evacuation, while it also provides an alternative if the route to the regular exit is blocked by fire, etc....
, usually mounted to the outside of a
buildingIn architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...
or occasionally inside but separate from the main areas of the building. It provides a method of escape in the event of a
fireFire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
or other emergency that makes the
stairwells-People:* Scott Kannberg , guitarist of Pavement* A. Edison Stairs , New Brunswick politician* Denis Stairs , engineer, Montreal businessman* Ernest W. Stairs , New Brunswick politician...
inside a building inaccessible. Fire escapes are most often found on multiple-story
residentialA house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
buildings, such as apartment buildings. At one time, they were a very important aspect of fire
safetySafety is the state of being "safe" , the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be...
for all new construction in
urbanAn urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
areas; more recently, however, they have fallen out of common use.
A fire escape consists of a number of horizontal platforms, one at each story of a building, with
ladderA ladder is a vertical or inclined set of rungs or steps. There are two types: rigid ladders that can be leaned against a vertical surface such as a wall, and rope ladders that are hung from the top. The vertical members of a rigid ladder are called stringers or stiles . Rigid ladders are usually...
s or stairs connecting them. The platform and stairs are usually open
steelSteel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
gratings, to prevent the buildup of ice, snow, and leaves.
RailingRailing may refer to:* Guard rail, a structure blocking an area from access* Handrail, a structure designed to provide support, such as on a staircase* Insufflation , the act of inhaling a substance, generally a drug...
s are usually provided on each of the levels, but as fire escapes are designed for emergency use only, these railings often do not need to meet the same standards as railings in other contexts. The ladder from the lowest level of the fire escape to the ground may be fixed, but more commonly it swings down on a
hingeA hinge is a type of bearing that connects two solid objects, typically allowing only a limited angle of rotation between them. Two objects connected by an ideal hinge rotate relative to each other about a fixed axis of rotation. Hinges may be made of flexible material or of moving components...
or slides down along a track. The moveable designs allow occupants to safely reach the ground in the event of a fire but prevent persons from accessing the fire escape from the ground at other times (such as to perpetrate a
burglaryBurglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
or
vandalismVandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...
).
Exit from the interior of a building to the fire escape may be provided by a fire exit door, but in some cases the only exit is through a
windowA window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...
. When there is a door, it is often fitted with a fire alarm to prevent other uses of the fire escape, and to prevent unauthorized entry. As many fire escapes were built before the advent of electronic fire alarms, fire escapes in older buildings have often needed to be retrofitted with alarms for this purpose.
An alternate form of rapid-exit fire escape developed in the early 1900s was a long canvas tube suspended below a large funnel outside the window of a tall building. A person escaping the fire would slide down the interior of the tube, and could control the speed of descent by pushing outward on the tube walls with their arms and legs. This escape tube could be rapidly deployed from a window and hung down to street level, though it was large and bulky to store inside the building.
History
One of the first fire escapes of any type was invented in 18th-century England. In 1784, Daniel Maseres, of England, invented a machine called a fire escape, which, being fastened to the window, would enable anyone to descend to the street without injury.
Abraham WivellAbraham Wivell was a British portrait painter, writer and pioneer of fire protection, credited with inventing the first effective fire escape system.After working as a hairdresser, Wivell established himself as a society portrait painter...
created an improved design after becoming superintendant of the "Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire." Anna Connelly patented the first fire escape in 1887, which was designed with an exterior staircase. By 1888 the US had granted 1,099 patents on fire escapes of "many forms, and of every possible material".
As
building codeA building code, or building control, is a set of rules that specify the minimum acceptable level of safety for constructed objects such as buildings and nonbuilding structures. The main purpose of building codes are to protect public health, safety and general welfare as they relate to the...
s became more common in countries around the turn of the 20th century, fire safety became an important concern for new construction. Building owners were increasingly required to provide adequate escape routes, and at the time, fire escapes seemed the best option available. Not only could they be included in new construction at a low cost, but they could be very easily added to existing construction. As building codes evolved and more safety concerns addressed over subsequent editions, all construction above a certain number of stories was required to have a second means of egress, and external fire escapes were allowed as a retrofit option for existing buildings prior to the post-world war II period.
In the 1930s the enclosed tubular chute type fire escape became widely accepted for schools, hospitals and other institution replaced the open iron ladder type. Its main advantage was people would have no reason to use it for another other than a fire escape and patients could be slid down it in a fire on their bedding.
However, with the
urban sprawlUrban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...
and increase in the amount of construction in the mid-20th century, particularly the increase in
public housingPublic housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
in major cities in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in the 1950s and 1960s, certain problems with fire escapes became clear. In the poorer areas of cities like
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, fire escapes were commonly used for everything but their intended purpose.
In the hot summer months, residents of mid-rise apartment buildings would sleep outside on the platforms of their fire escapes. Such a situation triggered the plot premise of
Cornell WoolrichCornell George Hopley-Woolrich was an American novelist and short story writer who sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley....
's 1947
short storyA short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
, "The Boy Cried Murder," about a boy on a fire escape who one night witnesses a murder in a neighboring apartment; this story was filmed as the suspense thriller
The Window (1949). The practice of sleeping on fire escapes can also be seen in
Alfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's
1954 movieThe year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...
Rear WindowRear Window is a 1954 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by John Michael Hayes and based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder"...
(also based on a Woolrich short story), as well as
WeegeeWeegee was the pseudonym of Arthur Fellig , a photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography....
's photography of the
Lower East SideThe Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
). Diagonal shadows of fire escapes made them a constant motif in
film noirFilm noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
, and the balcony scene of
Romeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
was transposed to a fire escape for the musical
West Side Story.
Boston Herald American photographer
Stanley J. Forman won a 1976
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for his powerful photo of two people plunging from a faulty fire escape during a 1975 Boston fire, and the controversial, unforgettable image resulted in tougher fire safety codes in some
jurisdictionJurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...
s.
In Literature
Fire escape is often regarded as one of the important symbols in the drama Glass Menagerie by
Tennessee WilliamsThomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
. Its name is said to be "a touch of accidental poetic truth, for all of these huge buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human desperation" At certain points in the drama, fire-escape even accentuate the characteristics of the characters. Tom, the character most intertwined with the fire-escape, has appeared on the fire-escape more often than others. Of most of his appearances on fire-escape, he is moving out of the apartment, a gesture showing his yearnings to adventure to the outside world escaping troubles at home.
External links