Thread: Means of egress

This place was built in 71. Basement bedroom window height exceeds 44 inches. Does anyone know when that requirement was adopted.

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Originally Posted by mathew stouffer

This place was built in 71. Basement bedroom window height exceeds 44 inches. Does anyone know when that requirement was adopted.

It does not matter "when it was recognized" that 44" sill height was the highest height for minimum safety for emergency egress and rescue, only "that it was recognized" and that anything higher was not to that minimum safety standard then, nor is it to that minimum safety standard now.

Getting out safely in a fire does not depend on "when" something was recognized as not be a minimum safety standard, only that "it did not meet" a good minimum safety standard then, and nothing as changed that.

You should address it the same way, regardless of "when" it was built. Fry Room 1 will happen in an older house just as quickly as in a new house, probably even more quickly as (something I have said for many, many years): TIME is NOT a safety feature, just because something has NOT happened YET does not mean something will not happen at any point in the future, and, in fact, TIME is running out, the odds are slowly catching up with TIME, odds *were* that nothing would happen for a long TIME, it has been a long TIME, odds *are* now against you.

Jerry,
Will a interior fixed ladder make it acceptable? And this may be a dumb question but what is Fry Room 1?

I think he means that if occupants can't get out, they will burn no matter the age of the structure.

In the 70's in this area, most window sills are at 46" or so. I can't remember the first year they went to 44" though.

matthew,
the 44" requirement was new in the 1976 edition of the uniform building code.

Originally Posted by mathew stouffer

Will a interior fixed ladder make it acceptable?

No, but a fixed step under the window to make the standing surface 44" probably would be acceptable - other than being in the way, a trip hazard, etc., when not needed for that use. Probably a better solution would be a fixed "window seat" as that would allow someone to stand on it and climb out the window.

However, none of them would really "make it right", those suggestions only "make it better", meaning "safer", as it gives a person inside the improved ability to "get out" during an emergency. Those do not, however, address a fireman coming in for rescue and falling face forward however far the floor is because they will be expecting the floor to be within 44" - and it will not be there ...

And this may be a dumb question but what is Fry Room 1?

Not a dumb question at all. That is a term I coined and used to get my clients attention that ...

Originally Posted by Brandon Whitmore

I think he means that if occupants can't get out, they will burn no matter the age of the structure.

Yep, Brandon has that covered.

I first used it for a newer townhouse on which security bars had been installed, permanently attached, no way to remove them other than to hook a chain to them and the fire truck and yank them off the wall, but, of course, by then there would be no reason to yank them off the wall, "recovery" (versus "rescue") happens *after* the fire is under control and extinguished and the structure is safe for firefighters to enter.

In that townhouse there were 3 Fry Rooms: Fry Room 1, Fry Room 2, and Fry Room 3. That got my clients attentions to what I was trying to tell them about the security bars, so I used it every time after that where there was either no EERO or there was an EERO blocked, or too small, whatever was wrong with it. It got my point across plainly and simply: whoever is in this room at the time of a fire IS NOT "getting out alive".