Third Floor Girls Shun Steps, Rope As Fire Escapes

Protests from eight irate inhabitants of 20 Walker st. greeted workmen yesterday morning when they arrived to erect 28-inch-high window steps in each of the four third floor bedrooms.

The eight residents of the third floor felt that these steps would not help escape in an actual emergency. "Our problem is not getting up to the window but getting through the darn thing," said Yvonne Laird '51.

The girls compared the size of the window opening to that of a single newspaper page, with the window ledge approximately four feet from the floor.

Two Girls per Rope

Charlotte Child '51, house fire captain, demanded external fire escapes instead of window steps and fire ropes. "Fire ropes just will not do in an emergency," she said. "We have no chance to hold fire drills, and only one rope is furnished per room."

T. Dawson Blamire, superintendent of Radcliffe buildings and grounds, said that the steps are being installed to comply with area fire regulations.

"Steps are just high enough so that the girls may sit on the ledge and swing themselves over and down the fire rope." Blamire added that without these steps, windows would be too far from the floor to permit the girls to get out safely.

Nine Minutes from Ground

After unsuccessful attempts by Shirley Curtis '51 to stage a mock escape by fire rope and window steps, Marilyn Grube '51 accomplished the three-story descent in a timed two minutes and 55 seconds. Observers calculated the time needed by two girls under ordinary conditions as nine minutes.

Miss Curtis was not convinced. "Even with the window steps I found it practically impossible to get over the window ledge and roof projection without having my apparatus fall off."