msbbarratt, re your reply to machinbird, I suspect you're right; the forward port slides would have been very near vertical. It would be great to think that the FD crew would have had the time and foresight to get it across to cabin crew that evacuating via the port slides should be the last alternative. But they'd have to have been activated, wouldn't they, just in case of fire on the starboard side?
So much 20/20 hindsight...