New Fire Ladder May Save Lives
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Three thousand people die in house fires every year. A new invention may offer victims a way to get out in time. A built-in escape ladder is being installed into a home in Easley. Homebuilders around the country, including Beazer Homes, Ryland Homes, and Ashton Woods, have started including them in their home construction.
Just this year, an Anderson woman died when her house went up in flames. She broke a bedroom window but couldn't get out.
Photographs are all Scott Rothgaber has left of his house. Said Rothgaber, "It was fully engulfed, flames up through the roof and everything." Fortunately, his family wasn't home at the time. But he realized if his daughter had been in her bedroom upstairs, said Rothgaber, "She would have had no way out and that really scared us so we wanted to make sure when we built this house it was as safe as possible."
Rothgaber had PEARL Protected ladders installed into the walls beneath the upstairs windows in his new home. You open the cabinet and toss the ladder right out the window.
Tate Builders installed the ladder and plan to put them into their custom built homes.
Said Sean Tate of Tate Builders, "Including it as part of the package and including it as not an option, but as a standard."
The ladders can be installed in existing homes, too. They come with instructions.
We watched as Rothgaber's 4-year-old son climbed down the ladder. PEARL says the inventor was inspired when two children on his street died in a house fire. Said Paula Collins of PEARL Protected, "The children were just feet away from a portable ladder but were so panicked and had so much smoke in the room, they couldn't find it easily and they died."
Rothgaber says that's one less thing he has to worry about. Said Rothgaber, "It's a no-brainer. Even the kids can operate them and they can get out by themselves."
A PEARL Protected ladder will cost you $454, plus another $150 to have it installed, or you can install it yourself. You can order one from their website... www.pearlprotected.com
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