The History Fire Escapes
The earliest known fire escape was invented in England by one Daniel Maseres in 1784. This was a simple winch designed to lower one from an upstairs window safely to the ground. This design required fixing points above each window for the winch to be connected to, making it useless for evacuating people from buildings without these fixings. In 1828 another Englishman, Abraham Wivell designed a set of fire escape ladders on cart wheels which also featured a canvass chute through which people could be lowered to the ground. This design required no fixing on the structure and was therefore much more versatile than Maseres’ design.
In the late 1880′s the US had granted numerous patents for a variety of fire escape designs, including the first fire escape stairs and ladders. In the following years as the buildings of Manhattan grew ever taller, some were fitted with fire escapes, but this was optional at the time. It wasn’t until the Triangle Factory Fire in 1911 which killed 146 workers that fire and safety regulations became mandatory. This led to a huge shake up of workplace regulations, the city’s fire department’s practices and building regulations, where all buildings over a certain height requiring more than one escape route to the ground floor.
Many new buildings were built with multiple stair cases inside whereas older buildings were retrofitted with fire escape stairs to the exterior which could be accessed from each floor. It’s hard to imagine a city without fire escapes these days, but what is harder to believe is just how many people lost their lives before fire escape ladders or stairs became mandatory in high rise buildings.
By Carl Liver