DOWN THE SLEEVE TO SAFETY
The unique Otis Evacuation System provides
swift and easy escape from high places in emergency situations
By Trebor Namiaz
Bernard Faurobert, a bearded Parisian with the
nervy nonchalance of a movie stuntman and the persuasive charm of a Pied
Piper, usually jumps out of an upper story window or into a deep, narrow
interior building shaft at least once a day somewhere in France. These
feats of derring-do are an important part of his job and, despite
outward appearances, they are completely without hazard. In fact. he
finds them easy and fun. But inducing people to follow him is understand
ably difficult — and at this task he is highly successful.
Faurobert is a sales executive for Ascinter
Otis in Paris. His current work does not involve the company’s
traditional elevator products.
Instead, he heads up the marketing effort in
France for a unique new life-saving device made of special fabric and
bearing the appearance of a long white sleeve.
Called the Otis Evacuation Sys tem, this sleeve
is designed to be deployed from windows or down shafts inside buildings
for use in evacuating people under conditions of fire. Extended from an
overhead cable car or from a ceiling-level, factory-traversing cab, it
can pro- vide escape for people in other emergency situations. In any
application, it affords a simple and swift journey to safety. One needs
only to enter the sleeve feet first and
Begin a slow, gentle slide to the ground,
keeping the rate of descend at a comfortable pace by extending knees and
elbows against the Fabric
Faurobert and his crew have already sold and
installed more than 300 of the escape systems through out France, and in
most cases the sale was clinched after Faurobert had coaxed the
apprehensive customer into following him on a trial trip down the
sleeve.
“1 talk them into trying it out usually from
three or four stories up,” Faurobert says. They always come down
enthusiastic.
Faurobert’s counterpart in Spain Conde Parras
of Zardoya Otis.
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