ELIYAHU NIR, INVENTOR FROM ISRAEL, fears that: ”Fires in tall buildings regularly claim lives because firemen cannot carry trapped people down ladders fast enough.”
Yep, he’s sure got that right. So he has come up with what he calls a simple and sensible solution.
It’s the Fire Tube.
The description from the patent application describes its use:
A specialised emergency truck would carry an extendible boom that could be raised to a window in a burning building. Jaws at the top of the boom would then expand to clamp a small platform inside the window frame, while a spiralling tube would be dropped from the frame down to the ground.
Anyone trapped inside the building could then step out of the window, onto the platform and into the mouth of the tube. Before they know it they are spiralling safely down to the ground. Nir claims that friction and the tube’s twisted shape should slow their descent, while a soft mat laid on the street below would break their fall.
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After you see how it works, it all makes sense. So, which ladder-starved fire department with tall buildings will be the first to order this life-saving device?
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