Recent fires in buildings with only one way out show why the IAFF and the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs are pushing back against proposals to allow single-exit residential designs in the U.S. and Canada. Limited egress has repeatedly proven fatal for residents and dangerous for responding fire fighters.
Bronx, NY – December 28, 2017
While playing with burners on a stove, a 3-year-old accidentally started a fire, prompting the family to rush out of their apartment without closing the door behind them. Fire and smoke quickly filled the building’s only stairwell, trapping those above with little chance of escape.
The fire quickly spread up the stairs. The stairway acted like a chimney. It took the fire so quickly upstairs that people had very little time to react. They couldn’t get back down the stairs.
New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro
“The fire quickly spread up the stairs. The stairway acted like a chimney. It took the fire so quickly upstairs that people had very little time to react. They couldn’t get back down the stairs,” said then-New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro. Some residents managed to reach fire escapes, but 13 people, ranging in age from 7 months to 63, died – some from burns, others from smoke inhalation. New York City later passed legislation requiring self-closing doors, but the law did not address the underlying danger of a single means of egress.
Worcester, MA – November 13, 2019
Worcester Local 1009 Lt. Jason Menard died in a triple-decker home while searching the third floor after the rear stairwell was compromised by fire. Tight stairs and zero visibility slowed the rescue and underscored the dangers that limited egress poses to both residents and fire fighters. When the rear stairway became engulfed, the crew on the third floor was trapped. Menard acted with exceptional courage, first guiding a probationary fire fighter to safety through the burning stairs and then returning to the third floor to help another trapped crew member out a window. Wind-driven flames quickly spread, further compromising escape routes.
As the flames consumed the third floor, Menard was unable to escape. Mayor Joseph Petty reflected on the incident, the eighth line-of-duty death in 20 years in Worcester, “The circumstances have become all too familiar to us: a cold night, one of our three-decker neighborhoods, a fire, and a death of one of Worcester’s bravest.”
Riverhead, NY – November 16, 2021
Five people died when they became trapped in a third-floor apartment that only had one egress to the second floor. Investigators determined that discarded cigarette butts on the front porch sparked the fire.
Flames quickly entered through windows and doors on the first floor, racing up the common central staircase that led to the second and third floors. Occupants of the first and second-floor apartments were able to escape, but the fire destroyed the staircase to the third floor, which partially collapsed under severe structural damage. “We’ll never know the answers, but could a secondary egress on the third floor have made a difference in a structure like that?” asked Councilman Ken Rothwell, a longtime volunteer fire fighter. In response to the tragedy, the town amended its rental dwellings code, requiring all buildings with third-floor rental units or more than two rental units to include a secondary means of emergency egress, sprinklers, and interconnected smoke detectors.
Montreal, QC – March 16, 2023
Seven people died in a historic building in Old Montreal, illegally operating as a short-term rental. Inexplicably, many units had no functioning secondary exits — some with no windows at all, and others with windows that were sealed shut. The building also had a single exit, the front door.
I literally said to my friend, ‘this is a freaking fire trap’ … I thought it was maybe just the old — you know, the fact that it’s a heritage building. But I was saying, like there’s no way this place can be legal.
Joseph Brockman, a previous Airbnb guest
Inspectors had flagged several fire safety violations, including a lack of smoke detectors and problems with its fire escape, but no action was taken even after multiple guest complaints about the lack of windows and emergency exits. “I literally said to my friend, ‘this is a freaking fire trap’ … I thought it was maybe just the old – you know, the fact that it’s a heritage building. But I was saying, like there’s no way this place can be legal,” Joseph Brockman, a previous Airbnb guest, said. One victim’s family said they were told she called 911 at least twice during the incident, begging to be rescued from a windowless room in the building. In response, the city of Quebec enacted aggressive enforcement laws against illegal short-term rentals and ramped up building safety inspections.
Honolulu, HI – January 6, 2025
Twenty-five-year-old Hawaiian Islands Local 1463 fire fighter Jeffrey Fiala died after becoming disoriented and trapped while performing searches on the second floor of a nine-unit residential building that was originally constructed as a single-family home. Throughout the building, several doors were permanently sealed to separate the individual dwelling spaces. Fire blasted through a first-floor apartment, into the hallway, and up the building’s lone stairway to the second floor. Fire fighters were forced into the second floor amid extreme heat and zero visibility, quickly becoming trapped.
Honolulu Fire Chief Sheldon K. Hao reflected on the loss, saying, “This tragedy is heartbreaking. Our fire fighters know the inherent risks but they still run toward danger to protect and help those in need.” The incident led to renewed scrutiny of illegal multi-unit conversions and limited means of egress.
