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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...

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/

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

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

Perhaps difficulty escaping from interior.

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.

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.