As you get down the alley you see the end of it is blocked. The only exit is the way you came here.
"You want me to WHAT?!", she screams back down, "Howard, why can't you just come up and get me out. I'm not climbing down this rickety thing."
Despite all this noise, so far you don't hear or see anything around. The streets here are eerily quiet. In the distance sirens and shouts have been background noise. You can still see the glow of fires in the sky from further south. A small explosion rings out in the distance. It must have been pretty far, it just sounded like thunder to you.
[ GM: Howard, if you want to pull down the fire escape you need to do a Dexterity test. I would call it 2 positive dice, one negative. The negative is in the event you somehow hurt yourself trying to do this. Also, if you want to convince this girl to get out onto the fire escape that is a Charisma test. It's a test of 4 positive dice, but you need two successes. No negative dice on the charisma test. ]