Fire Escapes

What is a fire escape?

Ò Emergency exit usually mounted outside of a building or home with multiple stories.

Ò Used when the stairwell inside is inaccessible due to an emergency.

Ò Usually open steel gratings to prevent the buildup of ice, snow, and leaves.

Ò Platform and railings on each story.

Ò Only supposed to be used for emergencies not meant for everyday or common use. 

Why the Fire escape was invented

Ò    As factories began to emerge during the industrial revolution, many fires occurred resulting in deaths and injuries.

Ò Building codes came into effect and fire safety was one of the most important.

Ò A revised version of the first fire escape ladder (which was mobile) was created that could be attached to a building.

The first fire escape

Ò A few different fire escapes models were invented between the years of 1874 and 1878.

Ò The first one put to use was invented by Joseph Winters in 1878 in Chambersburg Pennsylvania.

Ò It was a mobile wagon used to host an expanding ladder to higher stories for fire or disaster rescue.

Ò This made any window of a building or home a fire escape.

  Evolution to mounted fire escapes

ÒAnna Connelly in 1887 patented the first exterior fire escape staircase.

ÒThey were cheap to build and could be attached to already existing building.

ÒAt first burglars and criminals used these to break into homes and factories.

ÒModifications were made so that they were only accessible from above and could not be used by people on the streets.

ÒKnown as one of the most life-saving inventions ever created.

 

Manhattan, New York City

 

 

Boston Massachusetts

 

Milwaukee Wisconsin

 

 

 

  

Blog Posting 1: Second Stories

Blog Entry 1: Second Stories

      
      I decided to go to downtown Buffalo and walk down Washington Street as well as travel down Sweet Home Road pass campus.  They had very different landscapes, as well as colors, buildings and roads.  There were also many little differences I picked up on that I had never seen before.

      I picked Washington Street because my band plays at a venue called Club Diablo very often that is located on that street.  I always looked down the road and thought it looked unique, different and a cool part of the city I should explore.  Most of the buildings were very tall and looked as though they had been built in the early 1900's.  It was clear that they were built to provide the most space possible.  Within the four blocks I walked I noticed apartment buildings, bars, business buildings and parking lots.

     The apartment buildings were very generic and in square shape units mainly to provide as many rooms as possible.  They were dark colors and were made of very old materials (brick, concrete).  There were also apartments located above stores and some business buildings.

     The buildings were also very dark in color and made of many of the same materials.  They were very close together and did not provide much room in between.  Black steel fire escapes where on the side of most of buildings that were all very similar.  The buildings also looked like they had been occupied by a number of people a number of different times and had a lot of wear and tear.  I noticed that there were about 3 or 4 dead ends or dark alleyways in the few blocks I traveled.

     Walking down Sweet Home Road in Amherst was a very different setting.  For one, it was designed and set up for a school environment with students in mind.  UB is located on the road as well as Sweet Home High School.  It is a much newer and modern looking street that looked as though many of the buildings had been built in the last 20 years.

     There were apartment complexes, houses, businesses, gas stations and schools.  Most of them were painted brighter colors with new materials.  If anything was made of bricks they were much lighter in color not dark and dirty like downtown.  There was a lot of space and room between buildings and provides a lot of room for grass and trees.  This is definitely not the way Washington Street is set up.

    There were no dark alleys and the area had plenty of sunlight in the day and street lights at night time.  The streets were much cleaner and almost all buildings were in excellent condition and occupied.  Downtown Buffalo had many abandoned and vacant buildings no longer in use. 

     It was very interesting looking at the different landscapes of these places and allowed me to see many things that I didn’t notice in the past.  It also helped me understand the reasons for many of the placements of buildings and signs in different areas.  I also discovered how a place can age and become used over time in comparison to an area that was recently put together.