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LIFE SAFETY IN EXISTING BUILDINGS <br /> In the past the City of Everett did not have proper <br /> building laws that provided the essential features <br /> affecting safety to life and property from fire. <br /> Largely through ignorance of the fundamental principle <br /> that the vertical spread of fire is very rapid, but <br /> also due to a desire to cheapen construction or to <br /> provide more light and air, same of the older multi- <br /> storied buildings in our City have stairways, light <br /> shafts, elevators and hoistways, without enclosures and <br /> extending through all or most floors. These are, in <br /> effect, chimneys, through which the heated gases of <br /> combustion will rapidly rise. These often cause <br /> asphyxiation of persons on the upper floors and also <br /> quick ignition of any burnable material. <br /> Where there is a hazard of rapid spread of fire up <br /> vertical shafts, no alarm system alone can be assumed <br /> as assuring safety. This is true irrespective of the <br /> type of building construction. Life safety and <br /> unprotected vertical openings cannot both exist in the <br /> same building. Even though fire escapes are provided <br /> in ample number, the experience has been that death <br /> rides with the upward travel of flames and smoke <br /> through these vertical shafts. <br /> Although designed for life safety, exits alone can <br /> never provide perfect safety. Many instances are on <br /> record, particularly in connection with places where <br /> people sleep, of a fire producing enough flame, smoke <br /> and toxic gases to cause the deaths of persons in their <br /> sleep, or while trying to get to an exit. <br /> Too little attention has been paid in the past to the <br /> potential life hazard in these buildings. Inspections <br /> made by the fire department often covered only such <br /> items as rubbish and the installation of fire <br /> extinguishers and other first-aid extinguishing <br /> equipment. As a result of these inspections, <br /> additional outside fire escapes were provided. These <br /> are of some value, as they give a measurable degree of <br /> safety to able bodied individuals and provide better <br /> accessibility to the firemen. However, life safety can <br /> never be assured by any amount of additional exit <br /> facilities in multi-storied buildings which have <br /> vertical flues such as are provided by open stairways <br /> and elevators, which will carry heated gases, smoke and <br /> flame to the upper floors. <br /> Every fire chief knows that an open stairway provides <br /> an ideal path for the upward travel of smoke, heated <br />