Proposal for the Building Safety Code
proposed by : Kwon Woo Kim
address:
669 PALOMAR ST. #F
CHULA VISTA, CA 91911U.S.A.
fax : 1-619-476-0382
e-mail : info@escapeelevator.com / kwkimk@gmail.com
website link : www.escapeelevator.com
*** This proposal was prepared in May 2007 for the purpose of adding new codes to the existing Building Fire Safety Code of the United States. It was sent to the International Code Council (referred to as “ICC” hereinafter) who is responsible for instituting the Code. However, the proposal was denied by the ICC staff because it did not include the detailed texts concerning the codes I intended to propose. Originally from a foreign country, I did not have the means to find about such code texts and my proposal is still waiting to be filed. Since I find myself lacking the capability to make changes to the ICC codes, I would like to welcome everyone and anyone who may read this message and believes that this proposal can save peoples’ lives, to make proposals in his or her name or under the name of their organization or agency to the ICC (USA), which receives new proposals for the Building Fire Safety Code every year during the period from March to May. I am also sure that every country has an agency similar to the ICC of the USA and I would like to ask you to send a proposal, concerning these codes to the agency in your country under your name or the name of the organization or agency that you belong to. You can use this proposal or modify it to fit your nation’s situation to file in your country, including the USA. I do not believe that I have the ability to make such a proposal in your country. Once these codes are instituted into law, building owners will be required to install this type of speedy and safe evacuation system. This system will help people in emergency situations to avoid a potential tragedy, sparing us from the sight of sorrow and tears of the victims and those who mourn for them.
background of the proposal
What happened at the World Trade Center site in New York on September 11, 2001 has left in the hearts of many people including myself the deep emotional scars that would linger for a long time and never be erased easily. My heart is still troubled with enormous pains, especially whenever I picture the painful images in my mind of those people who literally burned alive or desperately fought the raging fire and dark smokes for their lives; some resorted to jumping out of the windows into the air from the high floors of the buildings, fully aware of their sure deaths. I was not born in the United States and am not familiar with how the system works in this country, but I am presenting this with the sincere hope of living someday in a world where innocent people do not have to experience such a tragedy and where we don’t have to helplessly watch such a tragedy unfolding before our own eyes. As I repeatedly watched the tragic scenes of September 11 on the television screen, I couldn’t help wondering what went through the minds of those people who died in fear. I later came to ask myself whether a new and safe evacuation method could be designed and introduced to deal with such dire situations. As a result, the emergency elevator system that I am now proposing was invented for such difficult circumstances in mind.
Everything is changing very fast in our time and age and the construction industry is no exception. Whenever I look at all the high-rise buildings soaring into the skies of the metropolitan cities, I am struck by awe at the incredible potential of human beings that make it possible to build such towering structures. It also amazes me that people are actively living their lives at the very top floors of these skyscrapers. Only a century ago, high-rise buildings, whether they are of small sizes that can house only several hundreds of people or larger ones that provide living spaces for several thousands and far more, did not exist and nobody expected to see this kind of tremendous change taking place over such a period of time. Advances in science have made it possible to continue to build ever higher structures and equip them with many convenient features like fast-speed elevators and other high-tech systems such as the latest fire detection devices, sprinklers, and monitoring equipment in preparation against the potential hazards of fire and other disasters. But, even if you have all these ultra modern equipment installed in the building, once the emergency situations such as a fire or a terrorist attack occur, there is no better way to secure the people’s safety than an evacuation system that would allow them to leave the building in time. It is important to note that when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center buildings, a far more number of people died due to the lack of proper exits and a modernized evacuation system than those who were killed from the immediate impact of the crash.
If those twin buildings had been designed and installed with the evacuation system that could measure up to the super-cutting edge technology that was used to build them, the very precious lives of those several thousands of people could have been spared and had there been an adequate moving system in place for the rescue teams, the fires could have been controlled far earlier and the twin towers that was worth several hundreds of million dollars could have survived from the crashes. But sadly, the only thing that was accessible to the people who were fighting their way to go down to the ground and the firefighters who were trying to move to the higher floors of the buildings to put out the fire and rescue the people caught inside, was the stairs, the same type of stairs that has been in use for centuries by people when they need to go up or down to another level. The buildings had all the modern equipment, but did not have any high-speed evacuation system. Obviously, it took too much time for the terrified people struggling to go down the stairs and for the rescuers working their way up to use the same narrow and already crowded pathways and it all resulted in the tragic loss of many human lives and incredible amount of property. The emergency stairs can be used very effectively for small-sized structures, such as four-or-lower story buildings with a relatively small number of people living in them, but they are very vulnerable and unlikely to give any satisfactory result in emergency situations involving modern, multi-storied, and highly complex buildings that house a large number of people and also contain various kinds of inflammable materials.
After considering all these, I have come to believe that in addition to the existing stairways, we need to find an extra means of moving residents and rescue workers safely and quickly for buildings of 5-story or higher. Even those lower-than-five-storied buildings must also have an additional evacuation system, if they have many occupants living inside but do not have the proper exit ways or there are hazardous inflammable materials. The same is true for any building found by the fire department to require such an extra moving system. The standard requirement would be for the involved buildings to be equipped or installed with such a system that would allow sufficient time for all the occupants of the building to hold out safely against the fire while evacuating to the outside and also to give the firefighters enough time to reach any target location of the building. For example, suppose a high-rise building is caught in a large-size fire that threatens the lives of 10,000 occupants or residents. If they can endure about 30 minutes in the fire situation in the building and it takes 3,000 rescue team workers to control the fire and rescue them, that building must have in place a system that can evacuate 10,000 building residents and move 3,000 firefighters to the desired locations within 30 minutes. I would like to propose that the proper legal code/regulation/law be established which would require all the buildings to meet this goal under any circumstances unless the whole building collapses. Any building that does not reach this goal must be installed with an extra moving system in addition to the existing emergency stairs which may be found as totally inadequate.
details of the proposal
1 . All the five-or-higher-storied buildings and any buildings designated by the relevant authorities shall be installed with the system that makes it possible within the specified time limit for all the occupants of the building to evacuate and for the rescue team workers to reach any target location inside the building, should any emergency situation arise, including fires, terror attacks, and other disasters.
2. The specified time mentioned in the above paragraph 1. means the amount of time which would allow the people involved to hold out safely against the hazard of fire and other emergencies.
3. The installation mentioned in the above paragraph 1. shall operate regardless of availability of electric power in the building. Its operation shall not be affected by the location or size of the fire and shall be able to withstand the effects of smoke or toxic gas. The system shall secure the pathways for the people (evacuees) and rescue workers (rescuers) so that they do not hinder or obstruct the passage of each other.
4. The facility/equipment for moving the evacuees and the rescuers shall be installed inside and/or outside the building and be readily accessible any time when it is needed (within 1 minute).
5. The system for evacuating people and transporting rescue workers shall be operated speedily and safely enough to allow the evacuees and rescuers to complete the evacuation and transportation from the building under all circumstances (except in the case of collapse of the building) within the time limits suggested by the concerned authorities.
6. All the five-or-higher-storied buildings and any buildings designated by the relevant authorities with their occupants living or working inside the structures shall be installed with the required facility/equipment in order to move all the evacuees and rescuers within the time limits determined by the concerned authorities. If the existing emergency stairs or evacuation facility is not adequate enough to meet this goal, efforts must be made to reach the goal by adding or reinforcing the current system with extra equipment/facility.
current environment for the system products
At the present time, there are numerous kinds of evacuation systems that have been already developed to help the people escape from high-rise buildings in case of emergency situations such as fires or terrorist attacks. In my opinion, the biggest reason that we have been powerless and unable to do anything for a long time in the past, other than to watch many innocent people succumb to the most horrific deaths, is the lack of a strong code/regulation/law that should have been established long time ago by the responsible agencies or organizations to enforce the requirement of installing a proper evacuation system. It can be argued that no one has so far put forward any proposal or suggestion to institute such a law or regulation concerning such evacuation methods and it is also likely that such law or regulation has not been established because the actual means to apply the ideas or suggestions, like the emergency elevator, to practical use was not available. A good example is the airbag system that is currently installed in all the new automobiles. Before this device was first introduced into the world, nobody could think of making any code/regulation/law that would call for such installation. Once the airbag system became well known, the related laws that required all new vehicles to be equipped with the device were also introduced and as a result, many human lives were saved from the perils of death.
Now that we have at our disposal various well-developed means of quickly moving people and rescuers in emergency situations involving high-rise buildings, I would like to strongly urge ICC (International Code Council) to establish or modify the relevant code/regulation/law and require all the affected buildings to bring in new moving systems for the purpose of preventing these kinds of unfortunate incidents from occurring on a daily basis. When ICC first established regulatory codes concerning the installation of sprinklers, emergency stairs, fire hydrants, and extinguishers, everyone complied with the requirements in the codes for all high-rise buildings and in the same way, if my suggestions are taken and codified by ICC, all the people involved including those from the construction industry will begin to study and work on how to apply these regulations to their building projects. They will compare many other systems already developed and available worldwide. All these activities of research and study will contribute to the development of new products and ultimately lead to protecting innumerable human lives and huge amounts of property.
The emergency elevator that I have developed is a system which is able to transport evacuees and rescuers in a safe and expeditious manner once a fire breaks out or a terrorist attack occurs in the high-rise building settings. The system does not run by electric power and its operation is not affected by the size or location of the fire, smoke, or toxic gas. It will allow the evacuees and rescuers to move simultaneously and without blocking the pathway of each other. Within the time frame of approximately 15 seconds, 50 evacuees can be transported from the 110 th floor to the ground level and, simultaneously, 25 rescuers from the ground to the 110th floor level. If the World Trade Center buildings had been equipped with 13 units of these emergency elevators with each unit holding 30 persons, it would have taken roughly 7 minutes for the system to evacuate the 3,000 people who perished there and transport about 1,500 rescue workers to the higher floor levels of the buildings. This system can be installed at any place of a building, either on the inside or outside walls or at the center, and applied to all existing and brand new buildings. It is very frustrating to think that the precious lives of several thousand people and enormous amount of property could have been saved only if these kinds of regulations and evacuation system had been in place before the 9/11 attacks. I have every confidence in the performance of this emergency elevator system. I will be more than happy to fully cooperate with anyone from the construction industry or other research organizations if they want to adopt and apply the concept/theory of this product in developing their own that can be much faster and safer.
P.S.
Some of those who had a chance to see my presentation on the emergency elevator system (none who are specialists) suggested that the accelerating speed of the descending elevator car must be somehow reduced before it hits the water at the bottom of the elevator shaft or else the passengers inside the elevator car could get hurt or injured because of the great impact. However, the system is designed in such a way that immediately after the elevator car comes into contact with the surface of the water, it penetrates into the depth of the water, which will slow down its speed. I do not believe that the impact would be significant enough to harm the people inside the unit, but anyway I also have an idea about the devices that can reduce the degree of the impact to about 1/10 of the initial shock that is to be felt by the elevator passenger at the time of its first contact with the water.
The actual speed of the descending elevator car will be slowed down by such resistance created by the wheel and generator, both attached to the body of the elevator car, against the elevator shaft wall; the resistance generated by the revolving cable and pulley; the resistance caused when the light-weight elevator car is pulled upward; and air resistance. With these kinds of resistance alone, the descending speed of the elevator car can be reduced substantially.
The elevator car descends and the moment it hits the surface of the water, the impact first reaches the sheet metal (1) and then it is extended to cause the contracting motion of the spring (2) and a substantial portion of the impact is lost and absorbed in the process. The same mechanism can be found in the buffer or shock-absorbing springs of the M-16 automatic rifle currently in use by the U.S. army. If this device is not good enough to secure people’s safety, further softening of the impact can be achieved by applying and converting the theory of the automobile shock absorber to the device for improvement. I assure you that I can come up with more different ways to lessen the impact and I will not hesitate anytime to offer all the necessary assistance, including the personal ride in the test of the emergency elevator.
We can find ways to reduce the descending speed of the elevator car before it touches the water, but at the same time, such slowdown means that the evacuation and rescue operation will take more time so I don’t think it is necessarily a recommended idea. However, cutting down the accelerating speed of the falling elevator car is a highly workable idea and the actual methods to solve the problem can be studied and found within a reasonably short period of time. Please contact me if you find anything or have questions and suggestions to add to my proposal and I will respond without much delay.
Proposal for the Building Safety Code
Made by
Kwon Woo Kim