did they not have shirtwaists?

For an American, brought up in the tradition of fire drills, smoke detectors, and safety matches, the cavalier European attitude towards fire safety is a bit mystifying. No smoke detectors, no sprinkler systems, no fire escapes, and no law about always being able to exit a room -- front doors usually need a key to undo the deadbolt, so you can easily lock your pesky 7-year-old in the house to play with matches while you go off to work. When I brought this up, the astonishing claim was made that European houses are so old that fire safety isn't such a big deal -- they're made out of stone, so it's fine. I think that a history of plagues and other ravages so inured Europeans to catastrophic fires that they just don't care anymore. To be clear, I'm opposed to fire safety in the U.S. -- in college, I would stay in my dorm room while the deafening alarm system went off, just on principle -- but I didn't expect this to be the area where Europe didn't regulate squat.