Fire Escapes Can Save Lives or Take ThemIf I told you I knew a fire chief who warned against using the fire escape, you might be surprised, but the reality is that firemen today will think twice before stepping on a fire escape. Many Fire Chiefs in older cities say the maintenance and painting of fire escapes has not been city inspectors’ priority in the past 20 to 30 years, even though many states require inspection and certification every one to five years. Due to budget cut backs and other concerns, normal inspections, and sometimes the inspector’s job, have been eliminated. As a result, firemen and residents have been hurt or killed due to tread failure or fire escape collapses.
Inspections Save Lives
The unwritten rule among seasoned firemen is to bring your own ladder to a fire because using a fire escape ladder may put lives at risk. Fire Escapes can save lives or take them. I have inspected fire escape in buildings across the country for the past 25 years, and my experience has been that, in rich an in less affluent neighborhoods, there is an average 75 percent to 85 percent fire inspection failure rat. Of that percentage, 50 percent need emergency repairs for problems that, if not addressed immediately, could hurt or kill someone.
In Boston, 80 percent of fire escapes haven’t been inspected and certified in 20 to 30 years. My efforts and my participation in a network television news report in Boston helped raise awareness of this problem. As a result, o permit in Boston can be signed off on without a current fire escape affidavit on file. Most property sales also require current fire escape certificates at closing. By comparison, inspections in San Francisco have shown an estimated rate of failure of about 30 percent to 40 percent. To save lives, and as is required by law in all 50 states, fire escape systems must be 100 percent functional at al times. What does this mean for you and your organization?
Three True Stories
In Boston’s Back Bay, a fireman who was saving a woman and her 8-year-old niece from a fourth-floor fire escape balcony reached for the fire truck ladder to guide it near the balcony. Suddenly the fire escape collapsed. The woman and child fell four stories, but the fireman grabbed the ladder with one hand. The woman died, but the child survived. Boston changed its fire escape laws, requiring that all fire escapes be structurally sound and painted every five years, with a certificate sent to the city.
In Beacon Hill section of Boston, two buildings shared a bridge. From a fifth-floor window of one of the building, access was provided to a fourth-floor roof deck on the other building. A man and his girlfriend used the deck one night, but when heading back to the bridge to answer the phone, the woman fell four stories and was killed. There were no protective railing to prevent her from falling. A lawsuit is pending.
In Iowa city, Iowa, three students living in a residential property owned by the city’s largest property owner climbed the fire escape to get a better view of fireworks on July 4, 2007. The fire escape collapsed, and all three were seriously hurt. The accident was blamed on improper reinstallation of the fire escape, which had been removed to repair the wall and window. A lawsuit is pending.
Steps to Ensure Fire Escape Safety
Call your local fire or city official to find out what the law is in your area regarding fire escape maintenance and upkeep. Most inspection laws fall into three categories: Must be maintained at all times; must be inspected and certified by an engineer or other qualified inspector every one to five years; must be tested for functionality by qualified inspector and kept painted. Ask wen the last inspection was conducted. If no inspection record exists, ask for an immediate inspection.
Send out notices to property owners and managers asking for current certificates or for immediate scheduling of inspections, because the law requires it. This notice will put the burden of responsibility onto the building owners if ever the issue of noncompliance is raised. If someone gets hurt on a fire escape, the insurance company will ask for compliance certificates before paying any claims. Insurance companies can and have denied claims because someone got hurt not by accident but due to neglect.
Recommended Repair Procedures
1.Remove all rust between any connection that shows 1/8-inch or more. Visible connections less than 1/8-inch and showing no failure to either side of the bolts should be cleaned of as much rust as possible and encapsulated with silicone to prevent rust build-up.
2.All rusted connections must be re-bolted and/or re-welded only after rust is removed. If remains and the connection is re-bolted or welded, it will fail re-inspection.
3.All loose cement four to eight inches around steel implements must be re-cemented using fast-dry anchoring cement. All footings at the base must use concrete mix or Sonotube.
4.All fire escape surface areas must be hand scraped or power wire brushed to remove all loose rust. The entire area should be primed and painted with a top coat of paint.
While fire escapes are not part of new construction, they are the answer for older structures including residential, commercial and institutional buildings that must meet egress requirements. They must be repaired, modified and replaced as necessary throughout the life of the building.
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