Ever since the tragedy of the two destroyed skyscrapers on September 11 2001 there has been a search for a quick way to evacuate a tall building in an emergency. In the event itself the occupants marched down the stairways in a hugely tiring effort and surprisingly a great many people made it out. But when speed is important simply walking down the steps is an agonizingly slow process and liable to panic and injury from people who crush against others. The airlines have evolved a system of unrolling a chute down which passengers can quickly slide to safety. If each stairway were provided with such a chute that would automatically unroll and permit occupants to slide from one landing to another it might make evacuation a quicker and safer event.
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The idea of evacuating a skyscraper is good. I do not like this solution. When there is fire the chute will not function, it will melt, and I do not think it is operational. I think the only way to evacuate from the tallest floors in a Twin Towers situation is from outside. Unfortunately, 9/11 there was not any evacuation system for the tallest floors. I also tried to think a solution if I were involved in such situation. I thought using parachutes, but it requires training and special skills to use them. Unless it is a parchute that automatically opens really near the floor(suppose 30-40 meters), so you do not worry to hit the building´s, and with a special air bag around the body to amortiguate the impact.
Since the stairways were useful before the building finally collapsed they evidently were not hot enough to melt a chute system. It is a matter of getting the evacuation done very quickly before all habitation within the building becomes lethal. A chute system would expedite this.
How do you handle the pile-up at the bottom of each landing?
By assuring the escapees that their lives depended upon their moving briskly to the next chute.
Instead of unrolling, you could have a slide that mounts on the walls above the handrails and lowers into place. It might be best to have just one side of the staircase for the slide so people could still walk down the other side if they prefer. There would be pile-ups on the landings, but it would still be faster and less tiring than running down stairs.
Instead of doing it in the stairs you can build a special hole were a spiral chute tube can evacuate persons.
How about a water slide made like that of a water park. It could spiral down and you would be wet if certain floors had fire or heat. I don't think you would need a lot of water except to start off to get the whole thing really wet. If I had too I'd go down dry to save my life.
Somebody invented a slide chute for buildings some years ago, and was trying to sell it. Haven't seen anything on it lately. Don't remember whether it would work on a skyscraper.
Imagine a chute from the 100th storey of a building, what will be theinclination of sthe chute. The chute should be atleast a mile longand hard to find space in a commercial area with high rise buildingallround- Just a fantasy
Not sure if any has already said this but why not a parachute system which is set to release a fixed bar or cable from the ceiling with which staff would attach the static line parachute. A window/exit area is rigged like a fire alarm and can blow out the window. Staff attach the static line and exit the window.
You would have trained staff come and run companies through a basic course to train staff the basic's when in this situation.
Lets face it the whole idea of this set up is for the worse case situation ie 911, so if like those poor people you are faced with the jump situation, at least you have a fighting chance. Its a tough sell but I know what i would want to do if given that option.
How about strong enough water beds or air beds(previously tested)at the base of a skyscrapper.