June 29, 1989 two years out of college, I worked at Franklins Printing in the Peachtree 25th building in Atlanta. There wasn't much out there for an inexperienced Art School graduate but to either run a printing press or work fast food.

I had been there a year or so when the lights went out and there was a bang that shook the whole building.

I had a habit of going up to the 6th floor to where the vending machine was in the IRS break room to get my Twix and a Coke and mostly to chat up the young women there. I was 24 so yeah, I was really interested in them.

The alarm bell only hit for half a second and nobody had any idea there was a tragedy taking place. There was a fire. The WHOLE 6th FLOOR was on fire.

The corridors were dark, the emergency lighting was dark, the alarms didn't work. The batteries were long dead from lack of maintenance.

The smoke was thick as tar. The wires were burning through the walls and there was a bright blue arc welder light and sound coming from a service door. I literally crawled over bodies feeling my way to the fire escape.

The stairwells were dark. Escape was difficult at best with the choking black smoke and the midnight in a tea kettle darkness. I had no idea what was going on except to get out.

I got to the ground floor with a few other people and ran out to the parking lot straight over to the fire alarm, which was on a pole at the corner of the property. Another escapee ran and pulled the other one at the other corner.

No sooner did he pull the switch, we heard the first fire truck.

It was raining glass. Those who failed to recognize the danger were now trapped and smashing the windows out with office furniture. They were piled in the jagged openings clamoring for air as the thick tar like smoke billowed out.

I made my way back to my employer on the first floor when a woman jumped from one of the smashed windows. The fire truck had just pulled in and I literally dragged at a firefighter to go tend her. Someone here told me she lived back last year or so. That's a relief. I carried that guilt for 30 years.

Anyways the next year (1990) the ADA was passed and death trap buildings like that one were now required to have real safety measures in place. One of those requirements was signage that aided escape. We call it wayfinding.

I could no longer work in that building and the tension between me and the owner of the Franklins Printing franchise was at a breaking point as he only saw me as another piece of equipment and didn't give two shits about my well being so I left.

I left Atlanta, put the tragedy out of my mind and took a job teaching graphic arts. The school system paid for my certification if I completed it within 2 years.

16 years ago I left teaching and was recruited by a major architectural firm where I am the color science director and director of digital graphics.

I am over the science behind the production of ADA signage to ensure it meets requirements in all conditions. The contrasts must be correct, the heat resistance must be in spec, the luminosity must be correct.

Most of all the color has to meet customer specs while being ADA compliant.

If you are in a hospital, government facility, military base or many colleges, you have seen my work.

This is where my life has taken me. That single moment has led me here to ensure you get to safety.

That one thought, if there was only something that didn't require electricity to light your way to the escape routes.

Thank you for sharing that. Hard to imagine that things were so different before what we know today. Inspirational. Paul Harvey worthy, actually.

Beautifully written. Agreed, definitely Paul Harvey worthy.
Thank you for sharing this information. I really doubt I’ll ever be able to see another directional sign to safety without thinking of you.

Amazing story of the event, imagine it was truly harrowing to experience, and clearly the difference in a mindset of survival and those who don't plan for these things.

That's one heck of a sign is it some luminescence coating in the paper or ink?

It's called photo-luminescent photopolymer.

It will glow for a long goddammed time. Longer than any stupid batteries that are most likely dead.

It's FAR superior to Super Luminova.

I am so lucky in my life where nothing like this has ever happened to me. Maybe I am over due.

As I was reading your post and crawling over people it occurred to me to install that sign 3ft off the ground.

Great story and nice to see you turned that into not just an opportunity but a way to improve personal safety for a lot of people.

Thanks for the interesting story.

My condo has EXIT signs illuminated by beta radiation from tritium. We just had to replace them – an expensive operation. A legal hassle to change to a different kind of signage – this is California.

Anytime you go into a building, have an escape plan. The signs are there for a reason. Find the fire escape map. Take note of it. Know the route to safety.

I always hunt the escape route no matter where I am since.

I was a master of fire escape when I taught school. My class were always waiting for the others during the drills. I never used the door, we always used the in class escape windows and had a plan in place during every class period. MY students would survive. I saw to it.

That's a cool ass effect! I'd buy that to hang in the house!

I completely ignored the story at first for the picture...but I think you'd take that as a compliment!

What a story. Thanks for telling it.

Thanks for your story. I hope that the students you had taught, keep up the will to self survivors. You must rescue yourself and keep that in the back of your head everyday.
Thank you for your work on the AMA signage process.

I worked in a factory before the safety regulations. An ambulance took a worker to the hospital at least once per week. Fire regulations were absent.
Thanks for the story.

Thanks for sharing your story and lesson about having an exit plan!

Terrible story well told. thanks for sharing the tale. There are likely people around the country annoying their wives and tickling their grandchildren because of you. Nice work.

Thanks for a good morning read. There is someone behind everything in our lives. Some of these 'everythings' are more important than other things. Yours is one of these things.

That was interesting-riveting actually. Thank you for posting.

Bob

Wow. That is an incredible story!

Why does it ALWAYS take a tragedy for anything to get fixed?

I live a few blocks away from the site of this tragedy which drove the requirement for emergency exit doors and exit doors to open outwards in general:

Rhoads Opera House Fire: January 13, 1908

Fantastic story Mr Mars, thank you for sharing

Coul that be used on doors, door frames as well ,
In basements or rooms w/o windows.

Or would that be cost prohibitive?