I remember an incident that happened in Boston maybe in the 1980s.
A Boston Globe newspaper photographer had captured a mother and her child waiting on a fire escape to be rescued and that fire escape had failed. The picture showed the mother and child falling in mid air. I think that picture was later a front page photo of a Fire Engineering Magazine issue.
I believe that the aerial ladder had been placed directly on the top railing of that fire escape, which caused it to collapse.
I tried to find that picture on the internet or details about it but I couldn't locate anything.