ISRAEL/ RUSSIA: An Israeli rescue system offers safe and quick exit from high-rise buildings in emergencies

Record ID: 396250

  • Title: ISRAEL/ RUSSIA: An Israeli rescue system offers safe and quick exit from high-rise buildings in emergencies
  • Date: 21st April 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) RAFI SALHOV, CEO AND OWNER OF DOUBLE-EXIT, SAYING: "DoubleExit was established immediately after the World Trade Center disaster. We identified a need of descending people from high-rise buildings and developed a system which is considered the best of its kind throughout the world, that knows how to handle almost every situation and descend people from
  • Embargoed: 6th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA15OFDN10EE9GARSGEX8DZKPP5
  • Story Text: "Double Exit," a new Israeli rescue device, enables safe and quick evacuation from high-rise towers during emergencies. An Israeli company has introduced what it believes is the safest solution for evacuation from high-rise buildings and skyscrapers during emergencies, when elevators of stairwells are blocked and people can not find their way out.
    Think about fire, earthquakes and even buildings under attack.
    Israeli company DoubleExit presents a mechanical rescue system which they say allows people to safely and quickly descend from towers and building at any given height.
    In the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, company owner and CEO Rafi Salhov said the DoubleExit, a subsidiary of Reshafim security door company, was established in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to provide a solution where ladders or slides have failed.
    "DoubleExit was established immediately after the World Trade Center disaster. We identified a need of descending people from high-rise buildings and developed a system which is considered the best of its kind throughout the world, that knows how to handle almost every situation and descend people from any height," Salhov said after he descended from an experimental five-story tower by hooking into the device and repelling safely to the ground.
    Kobi Biton, Vice President of DoubleExit explains that the system is installed in a closed cabin in an apartment or office. He says that an alarm system is activated by emergencies such as fire, smoke or earthquakes, then residents or workers just need to put on the harness connected to the cabin, and exit by a window or balcony.
    "It works mechanically, automatically, using three parts of the system: one is the main rescue device, the whole mechanism, the second one is the cable wheel and the third one is the rescue cable itself with the rescue harnesses. Once we instal the device, it could be in an apartment, or in an office or even on a rooftop, the user, when there is time, and the time could be fire, earthquakes or even terror attacks, he will reach, or she will reach the device, put the harness on, which is well connected, choose the way out - from a balcony or a window - and start to descend safely," says Biton.
    He adds that the system is able to carry up to 300 kilograms (661 lbs), and by using a roller mechanism it lowers the riders to the ground at a steady speed of a one metre per second. As soon as the first evacuee has reached the ground, the next harness is ready for use. He says it can function at any height or any floor of the building and can rescue lives without waiting for rescue teams.
    In recent months the system, which meets German, Russian and Israeli safety standards, was introduced to international markets. It's sold at a retail price which ranges between 5,000 to 8,000 U.S. dollars.
    Citing the horrific sight of people trapped behind windows of the of the World Trade Center, Salhov believes that his rescue system could have saved many lives.
    "Had the system been installed in the World Trade Center, there is no doubt we would have rescued many people who jumped to their deaths and people who did not jump and were incinerated," he concluded.
    Ends
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