Fire Escape Apparatus Design

[Jonlowe]

Hi,
 
I am a product design student currently undergoing the research phase of my final year project.
 
My design challenge is to come up with a new means of escape from burning buildings, an alternative solution to the designated fire exits which may be blocked or out of use. the product can be a retro-fit item or a product to be integrated into new building design.
 
At the moment i am still pretty open to which type of building to create this product for, is there any particular type of building where this product is most needed?
 
If anyone has any thoughts and opinions on this project i would love to hear them, and if you have any ideas of yourself which you think may be a possible solution.
 
Cheers, Jon.

[kurnal]

Buildings largely occupied by non ambulant persons eg care homes, hospitals. At one time slides and chutes were fairly common for this purpose, though evacuation lifts are probably as near ideal as it is possible to get.

[nearlythere]

Hi,
 
I am a product design student currently undergoing the research phase of my final year project.
 
My design challenge is to come up with a new means of escape from burning buildings, an alternative solution to the designated fire exits which may be blocked or out of use. the product can be a retro-fit item or a product to be integrated into new building design.
 
At the moment i am still pretty open to which type of building to create this product for, is there any particular type of building where this product is most needed?
 
If anyone has any thoughts and opinions on this project i would love to hear them, and if you have any ideas of yourself which you think may be a possible solution.
 
Cheers, Jon.

What is the product Jon?

[Mike Buckley]

The initial problem as I see it is the main thrust of the fire safety legislation and risk assessment is that the fire exits do not become blocked and the fire engineering goes to some pains to ensure that the exits remain available. If there are going to be problems with the exits becoming blocked this is going to be due to malicious human activity i.e. terrorism or arson.

However there is one problem I have come across, the scenario is you have a multi storey building which is owned by a housing association there is a tenant on an upper floor who has been there for a long time who, when they first moved in could get themselves out quite easily, but now have difficulty due to their age etc. The tenant does not want to move to another flat and the housing association does not want to force the tenant to move. The problem get that person out, without assistance, the apparatus has to be retrofitted and must not be to costly,

[AnthonyB]

Look into history - chutes, fluffy ropes, Davy apparatus, wire ladders, plenty of such items around for the first half of the 20th Century until it was realised permanent protected routes were the only realistic & safe options for building occupiers and correctly built and managed premises shouldn't have issues requiring further devices.

However there is a niche use for these types of things in specific situations - The Birmingham Town Hall refurbishment into a performance venue encountered the fact the top gallery floor used by projectionists had inadequate MoE via a single narrow unprotected stair coupled with massive single travel distances. Listing precluded additional & protected stairs, so two escape chutes were installed coupled with limits on the number of staff.

[Tom Sutton]

This URL produces a word document www.highriseescapesystems.com/files/Evac_Device_Market.doc download it and enable editing, then save it, the document shows a number of links that may be useful if only to identify stuff to discount.

[Alec]

Hi not reallythat relevant  but worth 2.5 minutes of your life [urlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es8CK0-DsHc][/url] 

[Alec]

Oops sorry I cant even get a hyperlink to work? copy and paste job http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es8CK0-DsHc

[wee brian]

The care home type scenario is probably best suited to a final year project.

The problem, is that you have people that don’t move much. How do you get them out of bed and onto a trolley/wheelchair or whatever.

Hospitals are designed so that beds can be wheeled from one room to another, not so most care homes.

Its not essential to move them downstairs but you do need to get them from  one compartment to another.