A fire incident or any machine-made disaster puts life and property at risk for its occupants. Nations never tolerate the waste created by these disasters. The term High Rise Buildings also refers to Skyscrapers, Towers, or Heightened Buildings. As per Indian standards, A “high rise building” is a building taller than 15 meter in height. In order to determine the height of the building, the fire department’s vehicle must be accessible from the lowest level of the building to the storey with the most significant residual effects. It is a necessity to understand the process of evacuation in high-rise buildings.
High-Rise building evacuation plan
The building, which is above 15 meter, has unique features that harmfully affect the fire safety of a building. This feature involves lack of local fire brigade ladders, extensive time of evacuation, limited water supply, mixed residuals like disabled person, old age, children, pregnant ladies or with different physical impairments.
A High-Rise Building evacuation plan should consider the life and safety of its occupants. Developing, structuring, designing and maintaining the building in a way that protects both the building’s contents and occupants’ thus also reducing incidents.
Process of Evacuation in High-Rise buildings / Emergency Evacuation from High-Rise Building
Ideally, the building structure should be so strong that it is not susceptible to fires and explosions, and natural disasters such as earthquakes, cyclones, and lightning. Emergency evacuations from high-rise buildings require careful planning. There may be a risk of injury if an individual tries to evacuate from a staircase in a very tall building. The aim of each of these rescues is to save the occupants by using special devices.
Rescue Chutes
Life-threatening emergencies, The Fire Escape Chute permits to make exit rapids in a mass evacuation. The use of Escape Chutes is commonplace in areas where criminal or terrorist attacks may occur. In the event of an Emergency Evacuation from high-rise buildings, Escape chutes are becoming a necessity. There are many formats available to incline vertically or slide down.
The benefits of Rescue Chutes are:
- Evacuation capacity to 15-25 people in a minute.
- Sliding 50 floors in 100 seconds.
- Accessing Rescue Chute from every floor.
- Protection of evacuees in any condition.
Suspended Rescue Platform System:
An enclosed platform or set of platforms that moves on the exterior of the building. Suspended Rescue Platform System (SRP), is a building-wide system composed of two or more strategies in an array of five collapsible cabins. As part of the disposition process, each array is dropped to the ground, allowing emergency responders to gain access to the cabin.
- It is effective for heightened buildings.
- There is no skill requirement for evacuees.
- This is a systemic solution
- It is suitable for all ages, disabled person and surgery people.
- Expert rescue personnel are appointed to control the evacuation process making no risk to the life of evacuees.
Controlled Descent Devices
Self-rescue system, safety air cushion, and other rescue devices use a simple harness, cable, and breaking device to control the rate of descent. It transports the occupants from dangerous to a safe area. CDDs are operated automatically or manually. People use CDD, by themselves or with the help of others. CDDs are installed permanently near windows or balcony or any exterior exit point.