A fire escape is a special kind of emergency exit, usually mounted to the

outside of a building or occasionally inside but separate from the main

areas of the building. It provides a method of escape in the event of
a fire or other emergency that makes the stairwells inside a building
inaccessible. Fire escapes are most often found on multiplestory residential buildings, such as apartment buildings. At one time, they
were a very important aspect of fire safety for all new construction
in urban areas; more recently, however, they have fallen out of common
use. This is due to the improved building codes incorporating fire detectors,
technologically advanced fire fighting equipment, which includes better
communications and the reach of fire fighting ladder trucks, and more
importantly fire sprinklers. The international building codes and other
authoritative agencies have incorporated fire sprinklers into multi-story
buildings below 15 stories and not just skyscrapers.

A fire escape consists of a number of horizontal platforms, one at each

story of a building, with ladders or stairs connecting them. The platform and
stairs are usually open steel gratings, to prevent the build-up of ice, snow,
and leaves. Railings are usually provided on each of the levels, but as fire
escapes are designed for emergency use only, these railings often do not
need to meet the same standards as railings in other contexts. The ladder
from the lowest level of the fire escape to the ground may be fixed, but
more commonly it swings down on a hinge or slides down along a track.
The moveable designs allow occupants to safely reach the ground in the
event of a fire but prevent people from accessing the fire escape from the
ground at other times (such as to perpetrate aburglary or vandalism).

Exit from the interior of a building to the fire escape may be provided by a
fire exit door, but in some cases the only exit is through awindow. When
there is a door, it is often fitted with a fire alarm to prevent other uses of the
fire escape, and to prevent unauthorized entry. As many fire escapes were
built before the advent of electronic fire alarms, fire escapes in older
buildings have often needed to be retrofitted with alarms for this purpose.

ARCHITECTURAL INTERVENTION DURING

FIRE GROWTH

I.

Design considerations

FIRE SAFETY CONSTRUCTIONS Refers to design and installation of

walls, barriers, doors, windows, vents, means of egress, etc. integral to and
incorporated into a building or structure in order to minimize danger to life
from fire, smoke, fumes or panic before the building is evacuated. These
features are also designed to achieve, among others, safe and rapid
evacuation of people through means of egress sealed from smoke or fire,
the confinement of fire or smoke in the room or floor of origin and delay
their spread to other parts of the building by means of smoke sealed and
fire resistant doors, walls and floors. It shall also mean to include the
treatment of buildings components or contents with flame retardant
chemicals.

II. Reflection
Importance of fire escape
All of us who use or occupy any building have a right to expect that we will
be safely protected should a fire break out. Sadly this is not always the
case. Something may fail within the fabric of the building, or with the fire
safety devices and tragedy occurs, causing death or serious injury
Escape routes are designed to ensure, as far as possible, that any person
confronted by fire anywhere in the building, should be able to turn away
from it and escape to a place of reasonable safety, e.g. a protected
stairway. From there they will be able to go directly to a place of total safety
away from the building.
As a society, we continually take fire escapes for granted. In their presence,
we fail to care for them; they deteriorate and become unsafe. When they
disappear, we hardly miss them. Too often, building owners, developers,
and historic preservationists consider the fire escape a rusty iron eyesore
obstructing a beautiful building faade but in times of need, these fire
escapes will be used. We should always remember that the architects are
designing for the livability of structure and the safety aspect is its subset.

III. Action point

Exit routes must be permanent parts of the workplace.
Exits must be separated by fire resistant materialsthat is, one-hour fireresistance rating if the exit connects three or fewer stories and two-hour
fire-resistance rating if the exit connects more than three floors.
Exits are permitted to have only those openings necessary to allow access
to the exit from occupied areas of the workplace or to the exit discharge.
Openings must be protected by a self-closing, approved fire door that
remains closed or automatically closes in an emergency.

IV. Sources:

5 fire safety principles by: kimbarsana

Fire escapes by:Thomas bartsch
Pd1185 fire code of the Philippines

Building code illustrated by ching

https://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/emergency-exitroutes-factsheet.pdf