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N.Y. MDW Law § 239

This is the official text of N.Y. MDW Law § 239, part of New York’s MDW Law — part of the compiled statutory law of New York, published by the state as "MDW Law." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Tower fire-escapes and supplemental stairs

Official statutory text

§ 239. Tower fire-escapes and supplemental stairs. In fireproof\ntenements tower fire-escapes or stairs which are supplemental to the\nstairs required by law may be installed providing such tower\nfire-escapes or stairs shall be shut off from all other parts of the\ndwelling by brick walls or partitions of terra cotta blocks at least\nfour inches thick, or hollow cement blocks at least four inches thick\nwhich have successfully withstood a three-hour standard fire test and\nbeen approved by the department, and have fireproof doors and assemblies\nwith the doors self-closing at all openings. Whenever such supplementary\nstairs are provided they shall be constructed in accordance with such\nsupplementary regulations as may be adopted by the department. Such\ntower fire-escapes or stairs shall not be used as service stairs and\nshall be kept adequately lighted at all times and free from encumbrance.\n

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.