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Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Skysaver: Escaping from high-rise buildings


Some people commented regarding my post about escaping a building during a fire with traditional climbing gear and noted that the rope can burn.
Of course this is a possibility. The fire on some of the lower floors may even burn yourself as you rappel down. The point is we’re talking about a desperate, last resort situation here. During the London tower fire some people climbed down using tied bed sheets to make a rope. I’ll take an actual harness and rope over sheets any day.
But I did look into it a bit more and there is a product specifically designed to escape high rise buildings during fires, terrorist attacks or other emergencies.
As strange as it looks, it does seem serious and apparently it works as intended.

On the down side it is very expensive at 800 bucks or more depending on how many feet you need.
On the up side, it requires no rappel knowledge, no particular physical strength or dexterity and allows you to safely jump off the window and safely reach the floor. The cord seems to be steel, which is of course safer and less likely to be destroyed by fire and debris.
Happy 4th of July everyone!
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

1 comment:

deb harvey said...

thanks!
serious $$$ but good to know.
i never go above 2cnd floor if i can help it.
here [usa] there are senior citizens highrises, which is a terrible idea!