Fire Escape Alternative
Our 4-story pre-war co-op has tiny little balconies, but no fire escapes, for the rear apartments. Incredibly, this isn’t a code violation, but we want to make the apartments safer. Any thoughts on the detachable ladders that are out there on the market as fire escape alternatives? Thanks!
Our 4-story pre-war co-op has tiny little balconies, but no fire escapes, for the rear apartments. Incredibly, this isn’t a code violation, but we want to make the apartments safer. Any thoughts on the detachable ladders that are out there on the market as fire escape alternatives? Thanks!
Unless you’re on a ground floor, a jump from the first floor alone would be probably about 7-8 feet. 2nd floor? Even higher. You’re looking at broken legs or worse. And if you can’t get away from the building that’s on fire, being able to get out on a little balcony won’t do squat.
who is the “we” here. if you have front and rear apartments, you have 8 tenants and this really only impacts the rear top two units (assuming you can jump from first two floors). in most fires, you get out of your apartment and out either by going down or up. Make sure access to roof is available too all residents in an emergency. Otherwise, yeah, the balcony itself is probably good enough.
A fire balcony should have access to 2 different apartment buildings. If there is a fire in one building, the residents leave their apartment, go onto the fire balcony and go next door to the next apartment building. Building, not apartment unit. That is the 2nd means of egress for a fire balcony.
Um….assuming FDNY can gain access to the rear of a building quickly and easily, those little balconies are not very useful.
Sometimes you can’t get to the back without getting access to the basement, which has an outside entry and is kept locked- meaning you have to locate the super who has to let them in- or they lose time breaking it down, and then breaking down the rear door- I speak from experience. The place I used to live- pre-war, 16 apartments. The only other way to get access to the rear was for them to climb up the front fire escapes and down the back, carrying hoses. By the time that all happens you’ve been burned to a crisp on your little balcony. Fire increases exponentially. A room is completely engulfed in as little as 4 minutes.
You don’t need fire escapes if you’ve got a sprinkler system, at least in the common areas leading to the means of egress.
That would be some cat! The only ladders I’ve seen for that purpose are made of a light weight chain.
I have a couple of those ladders myself. However, you seem to be playing with fire (no pun intended, lol)
The balconies are not balconies for shareholders to sip Champagne while admiring the garden, they are fire balconies. They exist as a second means of egress in a new fireproof apt (ie, sheetrock). In case of fire, the shareholder can step out onto the balcony and the NYFD will pluck them off.
Therefore you should let it be. If the board gets involved in dabbling with stuff over and above code, it is leaving itself open for liability issues.
Example: You recommend ladder to shareholders, shareholder cat chews ladder every day under the bed. In a fire, shareholder drops ladder off balcony, attempts to descend, falls and gets hurt due to cat chewing. Guess who gets sued? You, not the cat.
So, my thought is to own one, but the board shouldn’t officially sanction them.