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The Golden Age of Fire Escapes |
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NEW MASKED FIRE MARSHALL A WILDMAN?
Accent Suggests a "Highly Civilized" Jungle-Dweller; May Not Even Be The Male of the Species
The next day, the Fire Marshall took delivery of a crate of papers from the City Archives—the building plans for every high-rise in the city. He unrolled the first one over his vast desk, took up a pencil and started sketching. He did not stop for seventy-two hours.
Just an hour after that, Mr. Wilson Clarke, sole owner of Clarke Tower—which was, at eighty-one stories, the city's tallest building—received at home a photostat of the Fire Marshall's plan. It proposed that twin helices of steel stairway should wrap the entire height of the building. The covering letter explained that the Public Safety Office would sell the plans to Clarke Tower for a penny.
Mr. Clarke laughed, boxed the messenger's ears, and threw the plans in his fireplace.
The Fire Marshall mused publicly about chaining Clarke's doors. Mr. Clarke called the Mayor's office. But the Mayor was on safari, and his deputy was laying low in a sanitarium. Mr. Clarke tried to negotiate—surely one staircase would do? The Fire Marshall twirled a padlock on his finger. Finally, Clarke authorized construction, vowing privately he'd sell the fire escape for scrap when the Mayor returned.