Residents and workers in skyscrapers and other tall buildings are often trapped in case of a fire, 9/11 has demonstrated. The newly developed Evacuator offers a last resort, allowing them to slowly and safely descend on a steel cable at the outside of the building. Worldwide the device can save thousands of lives, from residents in tall buildings to mechanics in wind turbines.
The Evacuator will be presented at the International Tall Building Fire Safety Conference at the University of Greenwich, from 17 to 20 June in London. Furthermore Discovery Channel is making a documentary about the Evacuator, which is broadcasted later this year.
Dutch inventors Eugene Verstegen and Joris Veeger came up with the idea when they saw people fall to their death from the Twin Towers in New York. ,,If you are living or working on this height, you must be able to get out at all times. We can put people on the moon. Why is there no simple solution for evacuations from great heights?,” they wondered.
Together with a professional engineering company they developed a fireproof steel winch, which is guaranteed to work at all times, even when electricity is down. The device allows four persons at the same time to descend 50, 140 or 300 meters. They automatically descend in a safety harness on a steel cable, at a speed of 1 meter per second. The Evacuator is people’s last resort if elevators are switched off, emergency exits are filled with smoke and firemen can’t reach them. ,,What the airbag is for cars, the Evacuator is for tall buildings. With this technology we can save lives in 99 percent of all tall buildings in the world,” Verstegen states.
They were invited to the London conference by host professor Ed Galea, founding director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) at the University of Greenwich. Verstegen: ,,After we had shown him the Evacuator, he got so excited that he invited us to come demonstrate the device.”
The Evacuator has been developed, tested and produced in the Netherlands, approved by the German inspection institute DEKRA and awarded with the EN341 certification for 33 European countries.
More information: www.evacuator.com
