§ 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.