New York Consolidated Laws, Multiple Residence Law - MRE § 202. Egress from dwellings

1. Nursing and convalescent homes, homes for the aged and boarding and nursery schools, two stories in height erected after July first, nineteen hundred fifty-seven, child caring institutions, two stories in height erected after July first, nineteen hundred sixty-two, and all dwellings three or more stories in height shall have at least two fire-stairs.  Except as otherwise specifically provided in subdivision four, such fire-stairs shall extend from the entrance story to the roof and be equipped with fireproof self-closing doors glazed with wire glass and without transoms.  No windows shall be required in such stairs, but any openings in exterior walls, except any window openings facing a street or yard, shall be equipped with fireproof frame and sash and glazed with wire glass.

2. Every such fire-stair shall have an entrance on the entrance story from a street or an entrance at the side or rear of the dwelling from a yard, court or passageway having continuous, safe and unobstructed access to a street.  Every required stair and stair-landing shall be at least three feet eight inches in clear width.

3. There shall be horizontal access from every apartment to at least two fire-stairs, at least one of which shall be within one hundred feet horizontally in the line of travel from a required means of egress from such apartment.

4. A dwelling as a rule transiently or temporarily occupied, in which at least eighty per centum of the living rooms above the second story open directly upon a public hall without any intervening foyer or private hall, shall have at least two fire-stairs accessible at each story from each room through a public hall.  Such fire-stairs shall be so located that at least one fire-stair shall be not more than one hundred twenty-five feet along the line of travel from the means of egress from any living room.  Every such fire-stair shall have a clear width of at least three feet eight inches.  Two such fire-stairs shall be deemed adequate for seventy living rooms on any story.

5. Nursing and convalescent homes, homes for the aged, and boarding and nursery schools, one story in height, erected after July first, nineteen hundred fifty-seven, and child caring institutions, one story in height, erected after July first, nineteen hundred sixty-two, shall have at least two means of egress from the dwelling accessible to every apartment providing free and unobstructed egress by a door opening to the outer air.