N.Y. Multiple Residence Law § 26: Egress from dwellings

§ 26. Egress from dwellings. In every such dwelling three stories or

more in height there shall be from each story at least two independent

means of egress accessible to each apartment or suite. The first means

shall open into a public hall connected with a stair affording safe

access to a street, or to a yard, court or passageway affording

continuous, safe and unobstructed access to a street. The second means

shall be directly to a fire-escape or to an enclosed stair without

passing through the first means, except that where the first means

includes an interior stair which is closed off at each floor level by

fire-retarded construction with a fireproof self-closing door therein,

the second means may be another such interior stair or a fire-escape

directly accessible on the same story from a public hall therein whether

or not such public hall is also a part of the first means provided such

fire-escape is not a wire, chain, cable, vertical ladder or rope

fire-escape. In lieu of a second means of egress a sprinkler system may

be installed in the public halls and stairs.

Except as required by the provisions of article four of this chapter,

the second means of egress shall not be required in a multiple dwelling

of fireproof construction, six stories or less in height, erected before

July first, nineteen hundred fifty-two, if the egress arrangements

thereof complied with requirements of law applicable at the time the

dwelling was erected.