Evacuation of high-rise buildings – challenges and solutions
Mar 20, 2023
By: Jan Bouton – CEO of Escape Rescue System LTD
In times of extreme emergency, getting people down and out of a high-rise building while simultaneously bringing fire, rescue and rescue forces up is a very serious challenge. All of this, especially when you consider the state of uncertainty and chaos at the time of the event. The pressure that an emergency puts on systems that were designed and built for regular use, and the pressure of time and sensitivity to act and respond effectively in response to an event, has led human ingenuity and creativity to find diverse solutions, from internal and external staircases to parachutes and controlled descent means, firefighter elevators, and perhaps the most innovative and advanced systems – platform-based rescue systems.
All of these solutions can improve and promote building safety, and naturally, each type of solution has its own strengths and weaknesses, and its own unique advantages and disadvantages. Staircases, of course, constitute the essential and fundamental solution for evacuation, as well as access to the upper floors for rescuers and fire and rescue personnel. They will also be a solution in any time of emergency, given that they are designed in accordance with modern international standards that specify dimensions, designs and materials of enclosures and openings. The particularly challenging disadvantage of staircases is that a large number of people evacuating from the building are likely to have difficulty descending a large number of floors, due to physical limitations, crowding of people and of course conflict with rescue and rescue personnel whose goal is to ascend at the same time as people descending. Regardless of the friction and factors that can delay the descent of the stairs during the evacuation of the building, the access time for rescuers to high floors can be very long - 30 to 45 minutes to climb 30 floors. These become inhibiting and challenging factors during an emergency and thus actually constitute a factor that endangers life and property!
By: Jan Bouton – CEO of Escape Rescue System LTD
In times of extreme emergency, getting people down and out of a high-rise building while simultaneously bringing fire, rescue and rescue forces up is a very serious challenge. All of this, especially when you consider the state of uncertainty and chaos at the time of the event. The pressure that an emergency puts on systems that were designed and built for regular use, and the pressure of time and sensitivity to act and respond effectively in response to an event, has led human ingenuity and creativity to find diverse solutions, from internal and external staircases to parachutes and controlled descent means, firefighter elevators, and perhaps the most innovative and advanced systems – platform-based rescue systems.
All of these solutions can improve and promote building safety, and naturally, each type of solution has its own strengths and weaknesses, and its own unique advantages and disadvantages. Staircases, of course, constitute the essential and fundamental solution for evacuation, as well as access to the upper floors for rescuers and fire and rescue personnel. They will also be a solution in any time of emergency, given that they are designed in accordance with modern international standards that specify dimensions, designs and materials of enclosures and openings. The particularly challenging disadvantage of staircases is that a large number of people evacuating from the building are likely to have difficulty descending a large number of floors, due to physical limitations, crowding of people and of course conflict with rescue and rescue personnel whose goal is to ascend at the same time as people descending. Regardless of the friction and factors that can delay the descent of the stairs during the evacuation of the building, the access time for rescuers to high floors can be very long - 30 to 45 minutes to climb 30 floors. These become inhibiting and challenging factors during an emergency and thus actually constitute a factor that endangers life and property!
Development of technological means
Over the years, a number of different technological means have been developed that have attempted to solve the challenge described above. One direction of technologies provides personal (private) descent from the various floors down the exterior of the building. These include personal escape parachutes, controlled descent devices (CDD), chutes, and personal single-story descent platforms. The main advantage of these systems is their relative cost and simplicity, while they suffer from a number of very serious disadvantages. They do not provide a mass, systematic, and complete evacuation of all people in the building. They cannot be centrally commanded and controlled over the evacuation process, and they do not protect the evacuee during the descent from fire, smoke, and other hazards that can arise during an event of this type, such as sparks, elements that can break away from the building, etc. In addition, it is important to note that these devices are not capable of leading rescue and rescue personnel up into the building, precisely when saving people and property depends primarily on the rapid access of those forces to the incident floor and to the people for assistance. Therefore, wherever these solutions are adopted and installed, apart from the risk that they may worsen the incident, they are often required to be supplemented by systems that allow rapid vertical access for the rescue forces to enter the building. Another point to consider is that the use of personal systems in an emergency requires the rescuer to perform actions that are not daily (routine) actions that the rescuer would feel comfortable and know how to perform naturally or intuitively. This can be critical in an emergency situation, where when the rescuer arrives to activate that means of escape, he will know and remember how to do it.
במרוצת השנים פותחו מספר אמצעים טכנולוגיים שונים שניסו לפתור את האתגר שתואר לעיל. כיוון אחד של טכנולוגיות מספק ירידה אישית (פרטית) מהקומות השונות במורד המבנה החיצוני. אלה כוללים מצנחי מילוט אישיים, מכשירי ירידה מבוקרים (Control Descend Device - CDD), שרוולי גלישה (Chutes) ופלטפורמות אישיות לירידה חד-קומתית. היתרון העיקרי של מערכות אלו הוא עלותן ופשטותן היחסית, בעוד שהן סובלות ממספר חסרונות חמורים ביותר. הם אינם מספקים פינוי המוני, מערכתי ומלא לכל האנשים בבניין. הם אינם ניתנים לפיקוד ובקרה מרוכזים על תהליך הפינוי, ואינם מגנים על המפונה בזמן הירידה מפני אש, עשן וסיכונים נוספים היכולים להיווצר בזמן אירוע מסוג זה, דוגמת גיצים, אלמנטים היכולים להתפרק מהבניין וכד'. בנוסף, חשוב לציין, התקנים אלה אינם מסוגלים להוביל אנשי חילוץ והצלה למעלה אל תוך הבניין, בדיוק כאשר הצלת אנשים ורכוש תלויה בעיקר בגישה מהירה של אותם כוחות אל קומת האירוע ואל האנשים לסיוע. לפיכך, בכל מקום שפתרונות אלה מאומצים ומותקנים, מלבד הסיכון שהם עלולים להחמיר את האירוע, נדרש לא פעם להשלים אותם על ידי מערכות המאפשרות גישה אנכית מהירה לכניסה של כוחות החילוץ לתוך הבניין. נקודה נוספת שיש לקחת בחשבון היא שהשימוש במערכות האישיות בשעת חירום מחייב את המחולץ לבצע פעולות שאינן פעולות יומיומיות (שגרתיות) שהמחולץ ירגיש בנוח וידע לבצע באופן טבעי או אינטואיטיבי. זה יכול להיות קריטי במצב חירום, שבהגיעו של המחולץ להפעלת אותו אמצעי מילוט הוא ידע ויזכור כיצד לבצע זאת.
Today, there are essentially two quality solutions that provide both rapid descent and rapid access for rescue and rescue personnel. The first is fire elevators and the second is platform-based rescue systems (escape cabins). Both are designed to operate in emergency conditions, while providing protection for both rescue and rescue personnel and evacuees. The essential difference between them is that fire elevators operate inside the building, in the core of the building, within a "regular" elevator shaft, while platform-based rescue systems operate on the exterior facade. Therefore, their operating concepts are guided by slightly different philosophies. Evacuation in a fire elevator is "first down, then out", while evacuation in a platform-based rescue system is "first out (of the burning building), then down".
A platform-based rescue system was first developed by Escape Rescue Systems in Israel. Its design was guided by critical principles, such systems require:
A. Ensure mass evacuation (many dozens of people in a short time of just a few minutes)
B. Be accessible to people of all abilities and physical conditions, children, adults, including patients in wheelchairs and bedridden in hospitals
C. Allow access for responding rescue forces to the upper floors
D. Intuitive and immediate to operate and use
E. Enjoy energy independence (without dependence on the building's electricity)
F. Has automatic safety measures, but allows the commander to have the last word according to operational need at the time of the incident, even in the event of a malfunction.
While the firefighter elevator does "enjoy" the protection of the structural core, its use requires operation within an area defined as an emergency zone in a building that is in a state of fire, earthquake, or any other failure that requires the evacuation of people, and where developments may be sudden and extreme. These developments may not necessarily be known to commanders outside the building or even inside it. Therefore, in the firefighter elevator, rescue teams and people in need of rescue travel through the core of the building and often travel without knowing what is expected and waiting for them on the destination floor, so they may encounter a disaster without their knowledge or ability to change it. In contrast, for comparison, a platform-based rescue system operates outside the building, thus allowing for a constant line of sight with the building as a whole and with the relevant floors and a constant assessment of whether conditions are suitable for evacuation and rescue. This allows for more informed decision-making and operation of the system. In a platform-based system, the understanding that rescue operations occur under emergency and extreme "battlefield" conditions required the technology to have core engineering, technical, and operational features that are not present in firefighter elevators. One of them, and the central one, is that regardless of a malfunction or extreme conditions, the commander always has the technical ability to bring the system and its passengers to the ground, even for one final descent, even in the event of a major system failure.
Rescue solutions
In conclusion,
Implementing escape solutions when upgrading existing buildings to meet current safety standards may be technically or economically impossible. On the other hand, one of the motivations for developing rescue systems based on external platforms was the search for solutions that would overcome this disadvantage and provide the required safety at a reasonable cost and also allow their implementation on existing buildings. Adapting or adding stairs to a building to meet modern standards or even upgrading elevators to meet the requirements of fire department elevators - including hardening elevator shafts - will often be out of reach, and in such cases an external solution such as a platform-based rescue system may provide the required safety for the building and its occupants and visitors.
Implementing escape solutions when upgrading existing buildings to meet current safety standards may be technically or economically impossible. On the other hand, one of the motivations for developing rescue systems based on external platforms was the search for solutions that would overcome this disadvantage and provide the required safety at a reasonable cost and also allow their implementation on existing buildings. Adapting or adding stairs to a building to meet modern standards or even upgrading elevators to meet the requirements of fire department elevators - including hardening elevator shafts - will often be out of reach, and in such cases an external solution such as a platform-based rescue system may provide the required safety for the building and its occupants and visitors.
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