Yes fire escapes are a real thing...

A few weeks ago in the CBD of Denver I was excited to see my first real fire escape on a building. They aren't just a fictional or rare thing. In San Francisco they are on almost every building around this area of the CBD where we are staying! There are some very creative ones and some ugly ones. Check some out:

 Some like these two are painted to blend in with the ornately designed historic buildings.

 Others are actually built into the building as a stairwell with open windows.

Another built in fire escape

 Or even built into a crevice in the building so it is like a bridge between the two sections of the building!

 Others are used to hang advertising banners on.

 Some alleys like this one are a confluence of fire escapes.

 And they really do have concertina drop ladders to get down the last bit to ground level.

 The fire escape you can see coming off this building (on the right) is about 20 stories high. I am not sure I would like using that one!! At least it is more like a set of stairs than a ladder!

 In Chinatown they are used as the equivalent to an Aussie Hills hoist ;)

 And the color schemes used are a lot brighter in Chinatown, check out the aqua one on this building!

I even got to stand on one that was on the first floor balcony of the dim sum restaurant we had lunch at today in Chinatown.

Matt said yesterday that he was constantly being reminded on this trip how little I have traveled, because we are observing different things, he really couldn't care less about fire escapes because he has seen them before LOL. But I am having a ball because there are so many little things I love to see!