Designer creates a fire escape tunnel for high-rise buildings

A British designer has created a unique life-saving evacuation chute he claims it ‘could have emptied Grenfell Tower in 20 minutes’. Eric Hooper, 72, said watching live coverage of the devastating fire that killed at least 80 people left him ‘frustrated as hell’. He said fitting the escape tube on the 21-floor residential block could […]

A British designer has created a unique life-saving evacuation chute he claims it ‘could have emptied Grenfell Tower in 20 minutes’.

Eric Hooper, 72, said watching live coverage of the devastating fire that killed at least 80 people left him ‘frustrated as hell’.

He said fitting the escape tube on the 21-floor residential block could have saved countless lives when it was ravaged by the inferno in June.

The chute can be adapted to fit any building. 

HOW DOES IT WORK? 

The system of escape tubes are entered from hatches on separate floors. This allows residents a safe means of escape when stairs become filled with thick smoke and debris.

Activating a mechanism at each entry point unfolds a multi-layered chutes which children and the elderly can use to vertically slide down to lower floors.

The fire-resistant device supports a user by the waist who then controls the speed of descent by pressing against the tube’s sides. 

The chute system costs between £7,500 ($10,000) and £150,000 ($200,000) depending on the building’s complexity and can be purpose-built to any high rise building.

Single chutes can be installed with steel frames and can provide a roof-to-ground evacuation point for buildings up to 105m in height.

The designer from Stockwell, London, said: ‘All the time I was thinking that a simple chute system would have evacuated all the entrapped victims.

‘Whichever systems was installed at Grenfell it would have evacuated at the rate of 20 to 25 evacuees per minute.

‘For the price of a cup of coffee per day per person in the building they could have paid for a system in a year.’

He added: ‘I know for a fact that had this device been on Grenfell it could have saved I don’t know how many lives… I wonder why they never went down the stairs.’

Evacuees enter the escape tubes from hatches on separate floors.

This gives residents a safe means of escape when stairs become filled with thick smoke and debris.  

Activating a mechanism at each entry point unfolds a multi-layered chute that children and the elderly can use to vertically slide down to lower floors.

The fire-resistant device supports a user by the waist who then controls the speed of descent by pressing against the tube’s sides.