[munk-a]

They're hella illegal in America because of weird fire code rules - so you rarely see any support for them on US oriented websites.

[ajmurmann]

Oh, no! Another thing prohibited by weird fire codes despite more lax rules in Europe resulting in fewer casualties. We can't even have nice apartments because of fire code: https://www.niskanencenter.org/how-to-build-more-family-size...

[yial]

I would imagine that’s due to egress rules?

But searching (and assuming I found the right thing) it looks like they’re made and installed in some places in the USA.

Example: https://rolladenlv.com/

[bradknowles]

I would love to see German Rolladen here in the US. Thank you!

[lostlogin]

Assuming I’ve searched the right thing (are they external blinds?), what would make this particularly bad in a fire?

[conductr]

Perhaps difficulty escaping from interior.

[munk-a]

In Canada at least it's because fire-fighters aren't trained to bypass them and, as you said, concerns about people within being unable to escape.

[hnbad]

FWIW in Germany there's a requirement for buildings with automatic shutters to have one designated emergency exit window where the shutters can be operated manually. But fire-fighters shouldn't really have much of a problem if they carry an axe.