The fire protection of hospitals for the insane

Preface

This little manual is offered with the hope that it may prove of assistance to those who are interested in the proper fire-protection of Hospitals for the Insane. While much that is contained in its pages should be of interest to architects, builders, managers, and trustees, the work is especially intended for the use of Superintendents, and other officers, attendants, and employes in general of hospitals and asylums — those who are more directly concerned in the prevention and extinguishment of fire.

The author, regretting the incompleteness of the work in many respects, trusts that it may at least suggest what is necessary to be done in order that the dangers from fire in Hospitals for the Insane and other public institutions may be greatly lessened.

While especially adapted for the use of Hospitals for the Insane, the suggestions herein offered may be easily modified to suit the requirements of all large public institutions, such as Asylums for the Deaf and Dumb, the Blind, the Idiotic and Feeble-Minded ; Orphan Asylums ; Sailors' and Soldiers' Homes ; City Hospitals ; Industrial Schools ; Almshouses ; Infirmaries ; Reformatories ; Penitentiaries, etc.

L. H. P.

Batavia, III., July i, 1891.

Chapter I. Introductory

General Considerations — Summary of Serious Fires in American Hospitals — Statutory Provisions — Dependence upon Neighboring Protection — Objections to Stand-Pipe System — Propositions. . . 9

Chapter II. The Prevention Of Fire

Construction of Buildings: Faulty Construction; Fire-proof Construction; Slow-burning Construction; Exits; Fire-Escapes; Fire Doors; Attics and Basements; Laundries and Drying Rooms; Elevators and Dumb- Waiter Shafts; Foul-Air Flues and Dust Chutes — Heating of Buildings: Furnace Heating; Steam Heating; Stoves; Hot- Air Flues; Ashes — Lighting of Buildings: Kerosene-Oil Lighting; Gasolene-Gas Lighting; Illuminating- Gas Lighting; Matches; Candles; Electric Lighting — Kerosene Oil and Gas Stoves — Oiled Rags, Waste, etc. — Coal — Smoking — Work Shops — Night Watches — Instructions to Employes .... 15

Chapter III. Fire Extinguishing Apparatus

Water Supply — Water Tanks — Fire Pumps — Water Mains — Fire Hydrants — Fire Pails — Bath Tubs — Hand Grenades — Portable Chemical Fire Extinguishers: The "Babcock"; the "Champion" — Stationary Chemical Engines — Portable Chemical Engines — Stand Pipes — Automatic Sprinklers — Fire Hose — Hose Cart and Equipment — Ladder Truck and Equipment — The Hose House — Hose Tower 36

Chapter IV. The Fire Alarm

Importance of a Reliable System — Fire Bell or Fire Whistle — Open and Closed Electric Circuits — The Gamewell Rapid System: Boxes or Stations; Keys; the Indicator; the Circuit — Thermostat Alarm System = 53

Chapter V. The Fire Brigade

Plan of Organization — Chief Marshal — Assistant Marshals — Engineers — Electrician — Hose Companies: Duties of Captain; of Lieutenant or Pipeman; of Hydrant-Man; of Linemen — Hook and Ladder Company — Chemical Company — At the Farm — Life-Saving Corps — Hose-House Janitor — Fire Hats, Rubber Coats, Boots, etc. — " Bunkers." 59

Chapter VI. Drilling Of The Brigade

Importance of Drill — Contests — "Smudge" Fires — False Alarms — Obedience to Orders — Vocabulary — The Drills — Hose Company Drills: General Considerations; Laying of Hose; Making and Breaking Connections ; the Pipe and Nozzle ; Taking Up ; the Care of Hose — Hose Drills Nos. I. to VIII. — Ladder Company Drills : General Considerations; Raising and Lowering Ladders; Use of Axes and Poles; Ladder Drills Nos. I. to III. — Chemical Company Drills: General Considerations; Charging and Re-charging of Extinguishers; Chemical Drills Nos. I. to IV.

— General Drills : General Considerations; General Drills Nos. I. to IV. — Exhibition Drills and Contests; Exhibition Drill — Hose Contests Nos. I. to III. — Ladder Company Trials of Speed Nos. I. and II. ... ■ 73

Chapter VII. The Fighting Of Fire

Remarks — Obedience to Orders — Coolness and Presence of Mind — Giving the Alarm — Responding to Alarm — At the Hose-House

— Smoke and Heat — Retreat — Incipient Fires — Smouldering Fires — Fires in Coal Piles — Special Suggestions : Hose Companies ; Chemical Companies ; Life-Saving Corps 109

" Bitter experience has demonstrated, in innumerable instances, in this and other countries, the horrors that await hospitals for the insane whose authorities have been short-sighted — one might even say inhumane — enough not to provide adequate protection against the emergency of fire. Above all things, the system should be thorough and capable of standing the test of immediate application at a moment's notice." — Dr. G. Alder Blumer, Utica, N. Y.

" There is only one answer possible to the question, ' Is it desirable that hospitals for the insane be provided with a thorough system of fire-protection?' It is a self-evident proposition to which the greatest possible emphasis has been given by the series of appalling calamities from fires in insane asylums occurring year after year in all parts of the land, and I trust the time will come when a full equipment for fire-protection will be regarded as indispensable to every institution for the insane, and the necessary provision will be made to establish it in the same manner that provision is made for the ordinary expenses of each institution." — Dr. R. S. Dewey, Kankakee, III.

" There is, after all is said and done, some propriety in elaborate and long-continued, and, no doubt, irksome precautions against dangers that may never come. The daily and nightly exercise of attendants with fire-hose and extinguishers, and of patients with the fire-escapes, has been burdensome and complained of, and even ridiculed, and for several hundred days was of no immediate or apparent service, but it stood the asylum in good stead on one final day of the hundreds." — Dr. A. E. McDonald, in Annual Report for 1883, New York City Asylum for Insane, Ward 's Island '.

THE

FIRE PROTECTION OF HOSPITALS

FOR THE INSANE.

Chapter I. Introductory

THE subject of fire protection of hospitals for the insane has never received the attention it would seem to merit. During the past few years, however, there has been a move in the right direction, which shows signs of healthful progress. The melancholy lessons of the past ought to be sufficient for all time to come. Though the burning of an asylum, accompanied by the loss of many lives, usually stimulates hospital authorities to greater efforts in providing for their institutions better protection against fire, in many instances the effect is but temporary, and after a few thousand dollars' worth of apparatus is placed in the institution and a few rules have been framed, setting forth what is to be done in case of fire, interest in the matter rapidly wanes, and soon a comfortable sense of security settles upon the members of the household, from which nothing less than another conflagration can possibly arouse them.

The danger of fire is ever present, and the fact that an institution has escaped for many years is no guaranty of safety for the future. It is too often with hospitals for the insane as it is with towns and villages: little or no thought is taken of io INTRODUCTORY.

the possibility of fire until the place is wholly or partly destroyed.

Following is a partial list of the more serious fires occurring in American institutions for the insane since the year 1850. A record of 241 lives lost by fire, the greater number during the past ten years, is in itself a sufficient argument for the better protection of our institutions.

SUMMARY OF THE MORE SERIOUS FIRES IN AMERICAN

ASYLUMS.

December 3, 1850, night. Maine Insane Hospital. Origin — hot-air chamber.

Twenty-eight lives lost.

July 14, 1857, 7 a. m. New York State Asylum, Utica. Origin — patient starting fire in large foul-air flue in attic cupola of front central building. Loss, $69,000. Two lives lost.

July 18, 1857. New York State Asylum, Utica, barn. Origin — fire set by patient.

i860. Kentucky Western Lunatic Asylum. Loss, $200,000. One life

lost.

1862. Vermont Asylum, Brattleboro. Origin — furnace. Loss,

$40,000. Four lives lost.

September 25, 1872, 1 :i5 p. m. Northern Ohio Asylum, Cleveland. Origin — supposed carelessness of mechanics ; cupola of tower of Administration building. Water tanks in tower fell just as streams were turned upon fire. The falling of the tanks not only killed five persons, but rendered useless the entire water supply system by breaking pipes, pumps, etc., placed in basement. Loss of life, five.

1872. Nebraska Hospital. Several lives lost.

February 13, 1877, 7 a.m. Vermont Asylum, Brattleboro. /Stable. Origin — burning out of chimney. Loss, $25,000.

October 15, 1879. Missouri State Lunatic Asylum No. 1., St. Joseph. Origin — drying room. Loss, $89,000.

March 8, 1880. Kansas State Hospital, Ossawatomie. Administrative building completely destroyed. Loss, $40,000.

November 15, 1880, 7 p. m. Minnesota State Hospital, St. Peter, male wing. Origin — in basement, possibly near steam coils. " On account of s)noke, the internal means of protection could not be used." Loss, $100,000. Twenty-four lives lost.

INTRODUCTORY. u

April 19, 1881, 1 a. m. Illinois Southern Hospital, Anna. Origin— in attic,

from spontaneous combustion. Loss, $100,000. One life lost. December 21, 1883, 10:30 a. m. New York City Asylum, Ward's Island. Origin — in attic of new east wing, from carelessness of workmen. Loss, $25,000.

January 18, 1885, midnight. Illinois Eastern Hospital, Kankakee. Origin — floor over furnace in male infirmary cottage. Loss, $25,000. Seventeen lives lost.

February 12, 1885, 8 p. m. Philadelphia Almshouse, Insane department.

Origin — in drying room under third floor. Twenty lives lost. February — , 18S5. Indiana Hospital, Indianapolis. " From December, 1S84, to February, 1885, we had three fires, and in each case the origin was from a steam pipe in contact with combustible matter. Cost to State, $60,000." From Superintendent's report.

June 7, 1885, 10 p. m. Virginia State Hospital, Williamsburg. Origin — right wing of center building, probably from electric light wires. Loss, $140,000. Two lives lost.

January 2, 1886, afternoon. Essex County Asylum, Newark, N. J. Origin — in chute in which was placed a steam coil. Spontaneous combustion. Loss, $16,000.

1887. Oak Lawn Retreat (private), Jacksonville, 111. Origin — in attic

from defective hot-air flue. Loss, $20,000. August 4, 1887. Wisconsin State Hospital, Mendota, stable. October 12, 1887. Northern Ohio Asylum, Cleveland. Origin — in drying room. Rear buildings, including Amusement Hall, destroyed. Eight lives lost.

December 2, 18S7. London, Ontario, Can., Hospital. Origin — in drying

room. Kitchen and laundry destroyed.

March 4, 1889. Eastern Michigan Asylum, laundry and carpenter shop.

Origin — from carelessness of employe.

May 6, 1890, m. St. Jean de Dieu Hospital, Longue Point, Quebec, Canada. Loss, $700,000. Loss of life estimated at about one hundred, possibly more.

May 7, 1890 (night). Chenango County House (Insane Department), Preston, N. Y. Origin — supposed to have originated from smouldering fire of the afternoon, a female patient having lost her life by placing a lighted pipe in her pocket. There was no night watch. Thirteen lives lost.

March 13, 1891, 10:15 p. m. West wing Tennessee Central Hospital, Nashville. Origin — unknown. Loss, $50,000. Eight lives lost.

Year. Loss of Life. 1850 28

1857 2

1862 4

1872 12

1880 24

1881 1

1885 ' 39

1887 8

1890 113

1891 9

Total 241

As hospitals for the insane increase in number and size, the necessity for thorough and systematic fire protection becomes more and more urgent. Simply providing an institution with fire-extinguishing apparatus is not adequate protection as many are inclined to believe. A thorough system of fire protection must include measures for the prevention of fire, a rapid method of reporting fire when it occurs, reliable appliances for extinguishing fire, and a body of well-drilled men, ready and willing, at a moment's notice, to battle against it. The system, to be reliable, must be sound in all its parts. A flaw in any part will surely weaken the whole.

The fire protection of a hospital should be considered one of the departments of the institution, and it ought to receive as careful attention in regard to the details of its management as do other departments.

It would be well, for the sake of economy, if for no other reason, for each State to make ample provision, by legal enactment, for the protection from fire of its public buildings. It should be required that in the construction, equipment, and management of any public institution certain specified precautions shall be taken looking to the prevention of fire; that each institution shall be provided with a sufficient number of fire-escapes to allow of the ready escape, in case of fire, of all those confined in the burning building; that there shall be at the institution a sufficient amount of first-class fire-extinguishing apparatus, and that there shall be some system of drill whereby the apparatus may be quickly and intelligently used when needed.

A hospital situated within a city having an efficient fire department should not depend for protection entirely upon the city department. It should have its own private fire-fighting apparatus, and its own well-drilled brigade; it should have its own system of fire-alarm, as well as direct electric communication with the city department. There need not be as extensive an equipment nor as elaborate an organization as would be necessary for the same institution if situated in the country; nevertheless, no matter how favorably located in this respect, there ought to be a system of protection as thoroughly organized in every particular as though it depended entirely upon its own efforts for fighting fire. There is the same necessity for continuous effort at preventing fire as exists in any other hospital, and the same need of discovering and of fighting fire in its incipiency.

No reliance can be placed upon an indoor or stand-pipe system of fire protection. There are several objections to such a system being used, either alone or as an auxiliary to an outside system, the more important objections being: 1. The location of the fire or the density of the smoke may be such as to make the reel of hose or the stand-pipe inaccessible. 2. The progress of the fire, or the amount of smoke or heat may at any moment make it necessary for those using the hose to change their position or to retire, and to do so they must abandon their means for fighting the fire, and this not necessarily at a late stage. 3. By the burning of the hose at any point between the nozzle and its connection with the stand-pipe ; by the neeessary abandonment of the hose while the stream is still on; or by the breaking or tearing down of the stand-pipe by a falling wall there would be such a serious enfeebling of the pressure as to make almost valueless other streams. 4. In order that all of the many wards of a large institution be supplied with sufficient hose to cover every point, a very large amount would be necessary. In such case a cheap grade of hose is liable to be used, in preference to hose of good quality. Even if the hose be of good quality it will suffer in time from non-use, as it cannot be used for drill as frequently as would be necessary, and if wet at any time it could not be dried as it should be.

Inside protection should consist of portable appliances only, such as fire-pails and chemical extinguishers, to be used for the purpose of holding in check or of extinguishing, if possible, incipient fires, pending the arrival of the brigade.

The suggestions offered in the succeeding chapters are based upon the following propositions :

1. Fires in hospitals for the insane, as elsewhere, are in most instances preventable.

2. The rapid spread of fire is generally due to the faulty construction of buildings.

3. The appliances to be depended upon for extinguishing fire should be easily accessible, but entirely independent of the buildings to be protected.

4. A reliable and rapid method of giving an alarm is essential to a perfect system of fire protection.

5. No system of fire protection is complete that does not include a thoroughly organized and well-drilled fire brigade.

Chapter II. The Prevention Of Fire

IT is far easier to prevent fire than to master it. Many fires occurring in public institutions have been preventable, and, had the proper precautions been taken, the fire record would present a far different aspect than it now does. It seems strange that well-known facts in regard to danger from fire are so often entirely disregarded, or very meagerly entertained, in the matter of the construction of buildings in which are to be confined scores of helpless individuals. Mr. Edward Atkinson, President of the Boston Manufacturers' Insurance Company, says : " In the companies with which I am connected we can afford to insure cotton factories, woolen mills, paper mills and other classes of risks of like kind; but we cannot afford to insure the city warehouses in which the goods made in these factories are distributed; nor the schoolhouses in which the children are educated; nor the hospital to which the operatives are sent when ill; nor the churches where they customarily attend public worship — because they are as a rule too hazardous in their method of construction."

Surely hospitals for the insane should be as carefully protected from the dangers of fires as are mills.

The pecuniary loss is often greater at one fire than would have been the amount necessary for making the whole institution comparatively free from danger. Nor is a large expenditure of money necessary in order that a building may be made reasonably safe. At least it may be so constructed that fire will spread but slowly, thus giving those who are confined within its walls a better chance for escape, and the firemen a better opportunity for saving life and property. The expense of such construction need be but little more than the cost of building fire-traps. The prevention of fire should be very seriously considered in the construction of buildings, in the heating and lighting of the same, and in the management of the institution as a whole. Almost, if not quite, as much care should be observed in regard to the apparently little dangers as to the greater ones, for conflagrations are generally traceable to insignificant beginnings. Whatever is attempted with the object in view of preventing fire, in order that it be effectual, must be done in a most thorough and painstaking manner.

CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS.

Faulty Construction. — The rapid spread of fire in a building, from floor to floor, often directly from cellar to roof, is almost always due to faulty construction, especially of its interior, for many times, where great pains and expense are expended on solid and comparatively indestructible outside walls, the interior construction is decidedly unsafe, no attention whatever being paid to the danger of the rapid spread of fire starting within. Referring to defective and unsafe building construction, Mr. Gerhard* says:

"How are such structures usually erected and built? Their interior is of a highly inflammable character, consisting of all kinds of timber, studs, floor beams, floor boards, rafters, furring and lathing, the latter being narrow strips of wood, to which a thin skin of plaster is made to adhere. The inside of partitions, and the spaces between ceiling joists remain hollow, and form a large number of wooden flues, which constitute excellent concealed passages, not only for rats, mice, foul air and bad odors, but also for smoke and flames. By means of these thousand hidden flues a fire is spread unobserved, with astounding celerity, from the basement of a house to its attic, while it is, at the same time, most difficult to reach the flames with

* The Prevention of Fire: Wm. Paul Gerhard, C. E.

CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS. 17

water. The foregoing description refers not only to wooden buildings, but is equally true of brick or stone houses. As usually constructed, they are no better, no safer than frame structures. It is true, stone and brick afford protection against flames from the outside, but stone or brick walls form merely the outer shell, being lined on the inside with a network of inflammable studding, furring and lathing. A fire, once started inside the building, will soon cause its rapid destruction."

If hospitals for the insane were built not more than two stories in height; if the building of them was strictly upon the principle of slow-burning construction; and if for the fast-burning wood now so generally used for interior work and roofs could be substituted some such fire-resisting wood as the California redwood,* the fire risk would be reduced to a very low point.

Fire-Proof Construction. — After mentioning some of the objections to materials generally used in so-called fire-proof construction, Mr. Gerhard says:

" Experience teaches that hard-burnt bricks, the so-called fire-bricks and terra cotta, will resist the destructive action of the flames better than iron or wood. Brick or terra-cotta fronts are better than iron or stone fronts. Iron or wood used in the construction of buildings, in the shape of columns, girders or beams, should not be left exposed, but ought to be suitably protected against the heat by a non-conducting and fire-resisting covering of either good brick-work, sound plastering, concrete, fire-clay or

* The writer is indebted to Dr. F. W. Hatch, Medical Director of the California Insane Asylum at Agnews, for the following information concerning the fire-resisting qualities of redwood: "In conversation with the chief of the San Jose fire department, he told me that it was an undoubted fact that houses built of redwood were the safest. The wood is hard to ignite, and when ignited is slow to burn; there is little flame and heat, and it is almost instantly extinguished when water is thrown upon it. It takes a minimum quantity of water to put a redwood fire out. The Chief took me to a building that had been partially consumed by fire. It was a frame composed of pine and redwood, and the difference in destruction of the two woods was marked: while the pine was burned clear through, the redwood was, in most cases, only charred on one side. * * * I am informed that after redwood has been fired and extinguished it is exceedingly difficult to re-ignite it, from the fact that the charred portion resists heat very strongly."

terra cotta. Floors may thus consist of iron I beams with flat, hollowtile arches, no part of the iron beams being exposed. Iron columns similarly protected, may be neatly finished, by plastering with smooth mortar, Keene's cement or otherwise. With all wood-work the aim should be to prevent the immediate access of air, so as to retain its strength and soundness, even during hours of exposure to heat and flames. Thus, wooden ceilings may be protected with porous terra-cotta tiles, securely fastened to the underside of joists and covered with a coat of gypsum. Timber may also be more or less thoroughly protected and rendered uninflammable by treating it with fire-proof coatings of paint, by impregnating it with chemical solutions, or by covering it in an efficient manner with plaster or some other suitable, fire-resisting substitute, such as terra cotta. No hollow wood partition walls nor any hollow wood furrings should be tolerated in such a structure. Interior walls and partitions should be made of solid blocks of concrete masonry, or of hollow, wellburnt porous terra cotta tiles. The roof may be wire-netted on the inside, and plastered and covered on the outside with some incombustible material as a protection against sparks from chimneys or neighboring houses on fire.

"In such a fire-proof structure, a fire once started in any apartment or on any of the floors, would, in all ordinary cases, merely consume the furniture or goods contained in the room, and then die out for want of fuel, without injuring the building further than possibly scorching or burning doors, wainscoatings, baseboards, wood casings, window sashes and upper floor boards, and causing a slight additional damage to the ceilings and plastered walls by the smoke."

No hospital building of more than two stories in height should be constructed in any other manner than as nearly fire-proof as it is possible to make it. It is not necessary, however, that this expensive method be adopted for two-story buildings or cottages in order that they may be comparatively safe.

Slow-Burning Construction would probably meet all the requirements necessary for combining economy with safety in the construction of cottages and other hospital buildings, whether entirely detached or connected by corridors. The adoption of this method in the construction of hospitals would

CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS. 19

alone greatly lessen the risks from fire. " The chief principle of slow-burning construction," to quote Mr. Gerhard again, " consists in absolutely avoiding all concealed spaces, such as hollow wood floors, furrings or partitions, where fire can lurk or spread unobserved, and, if detected, could not be reached with streams of water."

There are various ways of carrying out this principle, with which architects are familiar. The substitution of wire netting for the usual wooden laths, and the filling in of hollow spaces with some incombustible material, such as mineral wool, slag, etc., is now often done. By filling in the hollow spaces in floors and walls the rapid spread of fire is prevented, rats and mice are kept away, and the walls and floors are deadened.

The construction of roofs should receive the same careful attention as do the outside walls and the interior of buildings, as there is much danger of the spread of fire from one building to another if the roof-covering is of combustible material.*

Hollow cornices of wood are very undesirable, as they allow of the rapid spread of fire.

Exits. — From every ward there should be at least two separate and distinct means of egress aside from the outside fire-escapes, so that in case one way should be cut off by reason of fire or smoke, another would be available.

* " For the best construction of flat roofs in the Northern States, the roof plank should not be less than three inches thick; in the Southern States it may be two and one-half inches thick. The plank should be grooved and spliced, and covered with tin, gravel or duck. If a pitched or mansard roof is adopted — which is generally unadvisable — the plank should be not less than two inches thick, and covered outside with shingles laid over three-quarters of an inch of mortar, unless slate is used on account of close proximity of other buildings, or some other adequate reason. If slates are to be used, they should also be laid over mortar, as they are subject to almost instant destruction when exposed to a moderate degree of heat, and sparks can often pass between the cracks." — C. J. H. Woodbury, " Fire Protection of Mills."

All exit-doors ought to be so arranged as to swing outward, in order that the dangers from a jam may be avoided. This rule applies to doors leading from wards, dormitories, diningrooms, chapels, amusement halls and other . places where a number of patients are congregated; it also applies to doors leading to fire-escapes. Very many lives have been lost in the past, during fires and panics in churches and theaters, as is well known, owing principally to the fact that the exit-doors were made to swing inward.

Staircases and Hallways require and should receive special attention in the matter of fire-proofing. The stairs should be made of the very best material, and whatever is used the underside ought to be made as nearly fire-proof as possible. They should be of ample width, with no sharp turns, a landing being placed where a turn is necessary. Where the stairs fill up a hallway, hand-rails should be provided.

Fire-Escapes. — The ordinary vertical or nearly vertical iron ladders, used so much as fire-escapes on large buildings in cities, should never be used for this purpose on any hospital building. Of course they are better than no escape at all, but very little better. Under the most favorable conditions it would be no easy task for an ordinary man in good health to descend from a second or third story upon one of these. How would it be, on a cold winter night, for frightened, insane men and women, with bare hands, to grasp the frosty iron rungs and attempt a descent? The only truly practicable fire-escape is one that will answer the purpose of ordinary stairs, and be as easy of access. There should be a platform or balcony, and a pair of stairs, the latter running parallel with the side of the building, protected by a strong railing, the whole being made of iron — as much as possible of gas-pipe, [ Fig. I . ] Wooden treads are to be preferred to iron, however, owing to the greater liability of the latter to become coated with ice. It is important that

CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS.

there be an easy means of exit from the building to these escapes. The best plan, and the only feasible one, is to have a door opening on to the escape from each ward or domitory above the first floor, the door opening outwards, and controlled by the common ward key. The size, number, and arrangement of

Fig. i. — Iron fire-escape and balcony fire-escape.

escapes will necessarily depend upon the size and shape of the buildings upon which they are placed. In any case, this rule should be adopted,- — that fire-escapes should be of such construction, and placed in such positions, as to allow of the ready escape of any number of persons from a building, when from any reaso?i the stairways are rendered i?iaccessible .

Fire-escapes of this kind answer a useful purpose, also, in furnishing firemen an easier, safer, and quicker means of reaching with their hose a second or third story than do ladders or inside stairways.