Emergency escape openable skylight

Claim 1

A skylight usable as an emergency escape route, comprising: a housing having sidewalls; a cover, a substantial area of said cover being constructed of a transparent material; a hinge attaching the cover to one of the sidewalls of said housing; means for resiliently biasing said cover to the open position; latch means for maintaining said cover in a normally closed position against the force of said resilient biasing means; shock absorber means mounted between said cover and said housing for dampening the motion of said cover; and retractable ladder means mounted at least partially to said housing, said retractable ladder means including a plurality of rigid ladder rungs supported in the extended position by a flexible ladder rung support means having ladder rung supports at predetermined ladder rung positions, said flexible ladder rung support means being comprised of a pair of flexible ladder rails, each ladder rail being comprised of a pair of parallel flexible straps, said rung supports being comprised of flexible straps interconnecting said parallel flexible straps, a pully arrangement in said retractable ladder means including ropes passing over the pulley arrangement for raising and lowering said flexible ladder rung support means, said retractable ladder means being maintained by ladder latching means in a normally retracted position and being openable to an extended position for emergency exit through the skylight when said cover is in the open position.