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Doublexit system (All photos: Mati Milstein/The Media Line)
On September 11, 2001, Yoav Barzilay sat in disbelief watching live television coverage of desperate people jumping from windows of the blazing 110-story World Trade Center skyscrapers. Fire crews and emergency rescue forces at the scene remained almost as helpless as Barzilay, unable to do much more than watch.
“I wondered why people were jumping,” Barzilay said. “I didn’t understand it. These people could have been saved.”
Barzilay, a 27-year veteran of the Israeli police’s elite anti-terror unit, made an immediate decision as he watched people jumping to certain death. “I decided to take action.”
One year later, Barzilay – who for 15 years headed the development of combat systems including rappelling and climbing devices for the anti-terror unit – came up with an idea that has the potential to save the lives of people trapped in skyscrapers due to fires, terrorist attacks, poisonous gases, earthquakes or other events.
Doublexit uses a simple cable and harness system to lower to safety people trapped in high-rise buildings at the controlled speed of 3.3 feet per second. The system is suitable for homes or offices on any floor of buildings up to 1,155 feet. (For comparative purposes, the WTC’s Tower One was 1,368 feet high). Doublexit is generally situated within a specially designed door (doorways are considered the safest location in any building) but can also be installed directly into walls or other niches.
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Yoav Barzilay with his creation
Doublexit, which integrates heat and smoke detectors, automatically deploys in a fire or other emergency situation, granting high-rise residents the option to strap themselves into a harness, make their way to the nearest window or balcony, and be automatically lowered by the device down to safety. Each unit has two harnesses at either end of a coated steel cable; once the first person has reached the ground and disengages from the harness, the second person at the other end can begin his or her descent. The system, which can carry loads of between 68 and at least 336 pounds, allows parents to carry children with them and grants a certain amount of fire protection. It takes an average of three minutes from the moment the system deploys until the first individual safely reaches the ground.
A secondary solution when building staircases or other escape routes are blocked, Doublexit gives trapped individuals an option to make their escape from a skyscraper in the critical minutes before rescue services – who are often rendered helpless by high-rise fires – even arrive on the scene.
Barzilay is co-founder of Doublexit Ltd. together with CEO Rafi Salahov and serves as research and development manager. The company is based in Ashqelon, Israel, and shares office space, manufacturing and testing facilities with Reshafim Security Doors, headed by Salahov.
Are frantic people really able to break through a window and rappel down the outside of a skyscraper when flames are licking at their heels? Will trapped high-rise residents be able to remain calm enough to make use of Doublexit?
Fear is definitely a factor. Doublexit’s creators said they took human psychology into account when developing the system. “The system works with human engineering,” Salahov said.
“People trapped by fire act differently,” said Cobi Bitton, Doublexit’s business development director. “You are in an office, in a fire, and you know you cannot use the stairways or elevators. The only way out is through the balcony or the window. You don’t have time to think about it. You will act automatically, instinctually. When you know you have a device to rescue yourself and others, you will use it.”
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Cobi Bitton explaining the system
The instinct to flee danger would overcome the natural fear of climbing out the window of a skyscraper high above the ground, Bitton said.
He also said the Doublexit system provides psychological comfort and security to high-rise residents due to the centrality and visibility of its installation in an entry door. It is not stored away forgotten and buried in a closet for years on end.
Doublexit received United States patent approval in December. The company is now involved in efforts by ASTM International, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Standards Institution of Israel to establish internationally-accepted standards for controlled descent devices like Doublexit. The final version of Doublexit offered to buyers will meet these international standards, Bitton said. The system already complies with certain European, Canadian and American UL standards.
Initial wariness of the system on the part of firefighters evaporated following Doublexit’s success with ASTM International and NFPA.
U.S. Deputy Consul General in Israel Rhonda J. Watson visited Doublexit headquarters in mid-December and expressed a strong interest in having the system installed in American diplomatic facilities.
“Something like this would be ideal in emergency circumstances,” Watson said.
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Rafi Salahov (r) and Cobi Bitton showing Rhonda J. Watson around the factory
Interest has also been expressed by Israeli and American government officials (information on Doublexit reached then-homeland security director Tom Ridge), the U.S. State Department, the Slovenian ambassador, economic attachés from Japan, China and Taiwan and the mayors of a number of American cities. Bitton said the director of Ohio Homeland Security, John G. Overly, is a strong proponent of the system.
Doublexit participated in an exhibition organized by the Israeli army’s Home Front Command in mid 2004.
Professor Robert R. Friedmann, director of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, wrote in a letter to the NFPA’s life safety and building code committee that “the usage of innovative escape devices such as Doublexit will make occupants able to handle such devices in a multitude of disastrous situations without the need for training and with the high likelihood of saving lives.”
The estimated cost of the DE1001 model (which comes installed inside a door) is between $8,000 and $10,000, including installation and regular annual service. The DE1002, which is installed in alternate locations, will be $5,000 to $6,000.
Bitton said Doublexit already has Israeli buyers lined up and they expect to make their maiden sales in the first quarter of 2005, once the system receives final standards approval. The first overseas sales will likely come by the second half of 2005. Doublexit has signed memorandums of understanding with both an American company (Winner International in Pennsylvania, makers of “The Club” anti-auto theft device) and the United Kingdom-based Ozonelink to serve as its exclusive distributors in those markets. It intends to target first the business sector and only later the private residential sector.
In late December, Doublexit reached an agreement with the Moscow-based API Group to jointly establish a new company there whose exclusive goal will be to tap the mushrooming high-rise market in Russia’s capital city.
Dan Aridor Holdings Ltd. is involved in developing Doublexit’s business plan and in bringing in investors together with the Guberman Group.
Doublexit is not sexy, Aridor said. It is not high-tech and it doesn’t fall into the classic categories of homeland security products. But he sees this as an advantage.
“They didn’t try to be sophisticated. They tried to be direct. The solution was simple … and with the right price tag. That’s why we liked the solution,” Aridor said.
He predicted the U.S. market for homeland security products would mushroom in the coming years. Reshafim and Doublexit “are going to take the market by storm,” Aridor said.
The Doublexit system is classified a “controlled descent device.” There are other systems in existence that allow people to escape high-rises, but most of them are one-time use devices. Other emergency escape systems that have been used or considered for use in high-rise buildings are categorized into “evacuation chutes” and “external platforms” such as external elevators. These systems are limited by their weight, the heights at which they can be used and their dependency on the presence of rescue forces. Evacuation chutes are also known as firetraps.
Could Doublexit have saved the lives of people trapped in the WTC towers on September 11?
“Of course. I have no doubt about it,” Bitton said. “You remember the guy who was waving a white cloth? It could probably have saved his life and the lives of hundreds of others.”