I'm glad they got out. People complain about fire codes, but they're there to save lives.

Some of the biggest fires I've ever seen were at apartment buildings under construction before sheetrock went up. All that wood framing standing straight up makes for great bonfires.

I once saw a case where some homeless people had built a shack out of wooden fence sections. A candle sparked a fire inside it and one quick-thinking guy just took off one of the walls and pulled out the burning couch and debris. So the quickest exit isn't always an existing door or window.