Dimensions of staircase kernels in orthogonal polygons

LetS be a simply connected orthogonal polygon in the plane. If every four points ofS see (via staircase paths inS) a common segment, then the staircase kernel ofS contains a segment as well. A parallel result holds when every four points ofS see (via staircase paths inS) a common 2-dimensional set. In each case, the number 4 is best possible. However, both results fail without the requirement that setS be simply connected.An example shows that no Helly-type analogue is possible for intersections of orthogonally convex sets in the plane.