The history of fire escapes
Tanya Reilly @whereistanya "When we first dropped our bags on apartment floors…"
Welcome To New York Taylor Swift content warning: fire Fireproof buildings are more effective than fire escapes.
Fireproof software is more effective than incident
response.
Where's our fire code?
Tony Fischer CC BY-2.0 Greenwich Village
Claudia Heidelberger CC BY-ND 2.0 East Village
Dan DeLuca CC BY-2.0 "fire escapes were haphazardly “ attached to the most elaborately designed facades"
Richard Plunz, a History of Housing in New York City
7 A brief history of New York City fires
(With apologies to actual historians) 1835
The Financial District 1835 what happened? no failure domains contingency plans failed exhausted incident responders 1835 better incident response dedicated incident responders: a professional fire department new infrastructure: the Croton Aqueduct 1835 better buildings robust structures: they rebuilt in stone 1860
Tenements 1860 what happened? no isolation obsolete contingency plans no failure domains An optimistic disaster plan is a useless disaster plan 1860 better buildings new law: an Act to Provide Against Unsafe Buildings in the City of New York 1867 The Tenement House Act
● Tenements must
have fire escapes... William Houghton's fire escape
1891 Mary McArthur's fire escape
1904 William Bedinger's fire escape
1915 Henry Vieregg's fire escape
1902 Anna Gonnelly's fire escape
1887 Pasquale Nigro's fire escape
1909 BB Oppenheimer's fire escape
1879 Nicholas Borgfeldt's fire escape
1882 Every hotel's fire escape
1887
Puck Magazine, 1887 1867 The Tenement House Act (continued)
Tenements must also have windows... 1871
Tenements must have usable fire escapes. Carla Geisser CC BY THANK YOU CARLA <3 1876
The Brooklyn Theater Fire 1876 what happened? obsolete contingency plans encumbrances unpracticed incident response delayed escalation restricted access 1876 better buildings accountability: prosecutions new laws for exits and encumbrances automated response: sprinklers! 1890- 1901
Even more Tenement House Acts! 1910
The Newark Factory Fire 1910 what happened? no isolation blameful culture no monitoring restricted access ignored warnings untested contingency plans delayed escalation no drills
etc, etc Human error is never the root cause 1910 outcome...?
“They died from misadventure and accident.” Coroner's Jury, December 1910 1911
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory 1911 what happened? no isolation obsolete contingency plans restricted access ignored warnings 1911 better incident response better tools: stronger pump, longer ladder 1911 better buildings laws: 60 in three years automated response: sprinklers accountability: the American Society of Safety Engineers "...a type of exit condemned by the experience of many fires" NFPA report, 1914
Phil Roeder CC BY-2.0 "...a type of exit condemned by
the experience of many fires" NFPA report, 1914
Barbara L Hanson CC BY 2.0 Dan DeLuca CC BY 2.0 Eden, Janine and Jim CC BY 2.0 don toye CC-BY-ND 2,0 Kristine Paulus CC-BY-ND 2.0 “ ... fire escape collapses during times of intense use – such as during actual fires.
John W. Cramer, The Story of a Tenement House “ 1923
New York Times, February 25th, 1923 1968
"Fire escapes shall not be permitted on new construction"
John VanderHaagen CC BY 2.0 1975 - 2018
More fires. More very specific laws. Fire deaths decreased because we built better buildings. prevention 1
making it harder for the fire to start detection 2
stopping it while it's small isolation 3
preventing it from spreading
50 response 4
okay, we're fighting a fire 1 prevention 2 detection 3 isolation 4 response reliability is everyone's job prevention 1
making it harder for the fire to start hiding the matches
55 Michael Chen CC BY 2.0 operating with care
56 Reproduced from NFPA's website, © NFPA (2018). wiring inspections
57 State Farm CC BY 2.0 detection 2
stopping it while it's small smoke alarms, fire extinguishers
59 topquark22 CC BY 2.0 sprinklers
HomeSpot HQ CC BY 2.0 isolation 3
preventing it from spreading
61 fire barriers
62 Achim Hering CC BY 3.0 fire drills avoiding encumbrances
64 response 4
okay, we're fighting a fire controlled burns
Jereme Rauckman CC BY 2.0 Software without built-in reliability?
That's a tenement. NYC had 48 civilian fire deaths in 2016.
That's the lowest in 100 years.
Reprinted with permission from NFPA Report U.S. Fire Death Rates by State copyright © 2017, National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA. All rights reserved. 444 → pages!
69 444 → pages!
70 "No computer software failure has “killed or injured a 1986 large number of people.
It is just conceivable that such a tragedy Software: A Vital Key to UK Competitiveness could occur." (C) Crown Copyright 1986 via Risks Digest (https://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks) h/t joe Thompson @caffeinepresent "Each life-critical system must be operated by a “Certified Software 1986 Engineer who is named as being personally responsible for the system." Proposal from the UK Advisory Council for Applied Research and Development, 1986 slide from @jkuroda's amazing LISA 2017 keynote.
Used with permission. 73 The stakes are lower? The stakes are lower?
New York Times, June 1986
The Independent, October 1992
Ars Technica, August 2013
“"It took a Newark fire 1913 and a Triangle fire to bring New York State's fire legislation to its present inefficiency." Inis Weed, New Outlook volume 104, 1913 Let's choose not to build tenements. http://noidea.dog/fires
● Escapes in Urban America: History and Preservation, Elizabeth Mary Andre ● No exit: the rise and demise of the outside fire escape: Sara E Wermiel ● How Fire Disaster Shaped the Evolution of the New York City Building Code, Charles Shelhamer ● The Creative and forgotten fire escape designs of the 1800s, Lauren Young ● New Outlook vol 104 (May-August 1913) ● RISKS Digest #GetAlarmedNYC ● 1910 Newark Factory Fire, Mary Alden Hopkins ● New York City (NYC) Disasters, Baruch College ● Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
Questions? Comments? Find me at @whereistanya or [email protected] 78