In article ,
"Christian McArdle" writes:

It is intended that the ladder is provided by emergency services, although a
rope escape ladder can't be a bad idea and I reckon should be mandatory,
really. It could easily fit in a purpose built cupboard fitted in the escape
window soffit.

Reminds me of my school. Some of the higher windows had a kind
of fire escape thing whose name I've completely forgotten.
It looked like a giant expanding tape measure fitted to the
ceiling with a single rung seat attached to the rope which
pulled out if it. You sat on the rung and climbed out of the
window. There was a speed governer which limited your rate of
decent. When you reached the ground, you climbed off the rung
and it rewound by spring ready for the next person.

There was much speculation if the things would actually work,
in particular if the speed governers which actually limit the
speed any more at all (they were old even back then). One
day, one of the teachers decided to give one of them a try,
with quite a few onlookers on the ground outside. The device
actually worked very well, giving quite a nice rate of
decent. Then came the snag -- it stopped about 15' short of
the ground as the rope wasn't long enough! Whilst one teacher
was left dangling in mid-air, several people went off in
search of ladders. Eventually, the teacher was rescued.
Sortly after that, whey were all removed and replaced with
iron fire escapes.

Ah the name -- it's come back to me now, they were called
Davy Escapes.

--
Andrew Gabriel