In the case of house fires occupants, including young children, are often trapped in upstairs rooms, the only escape being via the upstairs windows where there is a serious risk of injury in the absence of some means of reaching the ground. Rope ladders can be conveniently stored and readily fixed, when required, and could form a means of escape. However, such ladders are not easy to descend and cannot safely be descended by young children. The present invention consists in an emergency escape rope ladder incorporating a device in which a young child may be safely lowered to the ground with the ladder and without having physically to climb down the ladder. The rope ladder can be rolled up and conveniently stored, for example, under a bed or in a cupboard, for use in the case of fire or other emergency. When required for use, one end of the ladder is attached to a convenient safe fixing point in an upstairs room, for example hooked or shackled to a hook or eye previously fixed in a wall of the room, and a child is placed in the device, whereupon the ladder with the child safely held in the device can be payed out through a window by an adult and the child lowered to the ground. The lowered child can then be removed and the operation repeated, if necessary, for a second child and so on. Finally, the adult or adults can escape from the upstairs room by simply climbing down the lowered ladder. in a preferred embodiment of the invention,

the device for lowering the child is a pocket seat which is fitted to the lower end of the rope ladder and in which a young child may be safely held whilst being lowered to the ground without the need for any additional harness. Such a pocket seat is formed from textile or other suitable flexible material and has two leg holes in the bottom of the pocket so that the child can be securely seated in the pocket with his/her legs dangling through the holes. The front part of the pocket seat may be attached to the lowest rung of the ladder whilst the rear part is attached to the next rung above.

In order that the present invention may be more readily understood, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Figures 1 and 2 are front and side elevations illustrating one embodiment of the invention and,

Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary side elevation of the lower end of the rope ladder illustrating a child supported in the pocket seat. Referring to the drawings, the emergency escape rope ladder 1 includes rigid rungs 2 supported between two strands 3 of rope. The ladder, itself, may be of any well known construction and made from any suitable materials and it is unnecessary to describe this item in further detail as its structure does not form part of the present invention.

At one end, the upper end, the rope of the ladder is formed into a loop 4 which passes through the eye of a snap hook 5. In an upstairs room from which the ladder is intended to be used, an eye 6 is securely fixed in a wall 7 of the room in a convenient position to a window via which the escape ladder may be used.

At its opposite end, the ladder is fitted with a pocket seat 8 in which a young child may be safely held. This pocket seat is formed from textile material and has two leg holes 9 in the bottom of the pocket through which a child's legs may be inserted with the child supported on a crutch piece 10 between the leg holes. The front 11 of the seat has a portion of material looped and secur about the lower rung 2 of the ladder whilst the back 13 of the seat has a portion 14 similarly looped and secured about the next rung above.

In the event of an emergency, the end of the ladder provided with the snap hook 5 can be readily attached to the eye 6 in the wall and a child or each child in turn can be placed in the pocket seat 8 and lowered safely to the ground by an adult manually paying out the rope ladder through a convenient window. Following the escape of any children, with the rope ladder securely fastened to the room wall by the hook and eye 5,6, adults may escape from the room by simply climbing down the ladder. Whilst a particular embodiment has been described, it will be understood that modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention, as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, whilst the invention is described and claimed as embodied in a rope ladder, it is to be understood that it is not limited to a ladder in which the rungs are strung together by rope, as such, but may be embodied in any type of flexible ladder in which the rungs are strung together by suitable flexible filaments or elements, and the term "rope" is to be construed accordingly.