Q. Tell us about the fire-escapes - of the things you have seen?

A. Very few of the factories have outside fire-escapes; very few; they have very few outside fire-escapes, and where they have them they are inadequate. They use the stairways. They call those things the fire-escapes; they also use the elevators, and they call them fire-escapes. An elevator in a building is generally a fire shaft.

Q. Do you mean to say that under the law they can permit an elevator to be called a fire-escape?

A. They don’t permit it to be called a fire-escape, but they use it as such and mark it as such.

Q. Now, can any reliance be placed upon these elevators as fire-escapes?

A. No, sir.

—Chief Edward F. Crocker, FDNY, 1911. Testifying to the New York State Factory Investigating Committee in the aftermath of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire