Building escape railing system

Abstract

A building escape railing system for mounting on a building and facilitating the rescue of persons and the access of emergency personnel and supplies to the building is disclosed. The building escape railing system includes at least one platform tracking for engaging the building and a vehicle engaging the at least one track for vertically transversing the at least one track. In one embodiment, the vehicle is a lift unit. In another embodiment, the vehicle is a rescue platform. In still another embodiment, the vehicle is a remote fire hose platform carrying a fire hose. In yet another embodiment, the vehicle is a brake mechanism that facilitates the gravity-assisted escape of persons from the building.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the priority of co-pending U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60 / 640,919, filed on Dec. 30, 2004, by the same inventor.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to systems that facilitate rescue or escape of persons from a building during an emergency. More particularly, the present invention relates to a novel building escape railing system which includes tracks that can be attached to the exterior of a building to facilitate the vertical travel of escape platforms, scaffolding, traveling fire hoses and the like, on the building during a fire or other emergency. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART [0003] High-rise buildings such as apartments, office buildings and the like are equipped with fire escape stairways having an access on each floor for persons to escape the building in the event of a fire or other emergency. To escape from the building, occupants typically must leave the...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015] In yet another aspect of the present invention, an escape platform is mounted on a pair of parallel platform tracks, a lift platform is mounted on one of the platform tracks, a remote fire hose platform is mounted on another of the platform tracks, and a brake mechanism is mounted on still another of the platform tracks to facilitate multiple tasks in the rescue or escape of persons from and / or the extinguishing of a fire in a building.

Problems solved by technology

However, if the fire has progressed into the hallway, some of the occupants, unable to pass beyond the location of the fire, may become trapped in their rooms or apartments.

While firefighters have improved life-saving techniques over the years, it may be difficult for firefighting personnel to place a ladder at every window in the building through which persons need to escape the building.

Moreover, in the saving of persons trapped in a burning building, time is critical since, depending on the severity of the fire, some persons in the building may perish due to the fire or smoke inhalation if such persons are not quickly provided a means of escape from the building.

In some situations, it may be difficult for the personnel to properly place or position the fire hose into close proximity to the fire, particularly if a large portion of the fire is on the interior of the building.

In such instances, heat from the fire may render it difficult for personnel to sufficiently approach the fire through the building interior to extinguish the fire.

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