In the story, the poverty of the Wingfield family was of prime focus. The description of the fire escape outside the Wingfields' apartment affects the play in that;
It confirms the poverty of the tenants who enter and leave their apartments through a fire escape instead of a door.
The house that the Wingfields lived in was so miserable that it lacked a door from which they could have escaped the fire.
On page 27 of the story, the description of the fire escape shows that the Wingfields did not want to paint things as it really was because it was indeed horrible.
The reference to the structure as huge buildings was not reflective of the true situation and this is because their condition was really bad.
