Fire Escape

So I was sitting in the teacher’s room, chilling out between classes, when I noticed that all of the teachers were gathering just outside on the patio for some reason.  I finally wandered over to see what all the fuss was about, and low and behold, I found this:

What’s that you might ask?  Well, you probably shouldn’t if you read the title of this post…  That’s right, it’s a fire escape!  And it just so happened to be the time to test it.  I got over there just in time to watch a couple of teacher’s come down it.  This was pretty awesome, so I ran to my desk and grabbed my camera.  A bunch of my kids were gathered on the second floor taking in the festivities.

 

Two of my third graders (ninth graders) got to come down it as well.  Basically you sit at the edge of the hole and slide down to safety.  They were really excited to try it out, despite the fact that the thing was pretty filthy. 

 

I’d seen the fire escape from above a few times, but this was the first time I’d seen it in use.  The hatch is located on the second floor balcony, which goes the entire length of the second floor and is accessible from any classroom there. This is what it looks like from above when not in use.

And here are the posted instructions on how to use it, complete with pictures.

It's pretty cool and we certainly didn't have anything like it at my junior high school!