Meet Great Escape Services: Fire Escape & Exterior Inspection Specialists for the Bay Area and LA
- Serina Calhoun
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
If you manage buildings in San Francisco, Oakland, or anywhere else in California, you already know the drill: exterior safety programs are multiplying like gremlins, deadlines have zero sense of humor, and the stakes are… well, elevated. Annual fire escape checks, 5-year structural inspections, exterior elevated elements, façade inspections - a never-ending obstacle course of requirements.
Which is exactly why Great Escape Services is such a breath of fresh (and code-compliant) air.
Built around fire escape safety
Great Escape Services is a family-run company with roots in both construction and life safety. The company was founded in 1997 by a retired firefighter who had seen one too many rusted, questionable fire escapes that make someone think, “Am I about to become a case study in ‘what not to stand on’?” He built the business around one simple idea: fire escapes should be structurally sound when people need them most.
When he retired in 2020, he passed the torch to a team that could carry that mission forward. Enter Letitia Walsh and her husband, lifelong construction and inspection pros with 40+ years of experience. They bought the business, keeping the heart of it intact while expanding its offerings. What started as annual fire escape maintenance slowly grew into a full suite of exterior, code-driven inspections.
Inspection-only, by design
One of the smartest decisions they made early on? Staying firmly focused on inspections only.
They don’t do repairs (beyond basic annual fire escape maintenance), because they want their reports to be objective, clean, and conflict-free. When repairs are needed, they happily refer clients to trusted ironworkers, electricians, painters, and other tradespeople they’ve known forever. No upselling, no awkward incentives, just clarity.
What they inspect
Great Escape Services offers:
Annual Fire Escape Maintenance (ladders, cables, handles — all the grab-and-go parts)
Annual Fire Escape Inspections
604 / 721 Inspections
5-Year Fire Escape Load Tests
SB-326 Inspections for multi-family condominium buildings
They’re also planning to expand their façade inspection services in the coming months. They cover the full Bay Area (East Bay, North Bay, Peninsula, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Sacramento) and are expanding to Los Angeles next.
Why we recommend them
We recommend Great Escape Services because they’re the rare team that actually likes digging into exterior inspections, and it shows. They bring decades of construction and life-safety chops, a reputation for being delightfully detail-obsessed, and the kind of steady expertise that makes you exhale. With new rules rolling out, they’re already prepping to expand their services to include facade inspections, because apparently sleep is optional when you’re this committed.
If you have properties in Oakland, take special note - they’re actively building their footprint there and would love to connect.
For property managers juggling exterior compliance across multiple buildings, Great Escape Services is exactly the kind of steady, technically sharp partner you want in your corner.
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