The present invention relates to an arrangement for evacuat ^¬ ing people from a building as defined in the preamble of claim 1.

In a building in emergency situations, such as a fire, peo ^¬ ple must be evacuated from the building quickly. This is of ^¬ ten difficult and slow, especially in tall buildings. Evacu- ation should be done as fast as possible, because fire and lethal smoke and poisonous gases spread fast.

Traditionally, primary evacuation route is stairs, but in big and tall buildings with plenty of people inside it can take hours to get everybody out by stairs. Also in case of a fire, smoke can get to stairways, which can make evacuation by stairs impossible. These problems in present evacuation methods may cause loss of human lives. One object of the present invention is to eliminate draw ^¬ backs of prior art technology and to achieve fast and safe arrangement for evacuating people from a building in emergency cases. The arrangement according to the invention is characterized by what is presented in the characterization part of claim 1. Other embodiments of the invention are characterized by what is presented in the other claims. Advantageously the invention represents as an arrangement for evacuating people from a building using an evacuation balcony. When the evacuation balcony is not in use it is stored in a storage space, such as a pit or other under ^¬ ground room adjacent to the basement or groundwork of the building. Thus the evacuation balcony is easy to hide completely or partially below the visible facade of the build ^¬ ing . The inventive content of the application can also be defined differently than in the claims presented below. The inven ^¬ tive content may also consist of several separate inven ^¬ tions, especially if the invention is considered in the light of expressions or implicit sub-tasks or from the point of view of advantages or categories of advantages achieved. In this case, some of the attributes contained in the claims below may be superfluous from the point of view of separate inventive concepts. Likewise the different details presented in connection with each embodiment can also be applied in other embodiments. In addition it can be stated that at least some of the subordinate claims can, in at least some situations, be deemed to be inventive in their own right.

The arrangement according to the invention has several use- ful advantages. Among other things it makes it possible to evacuate large amounts of people fast from buildings, also from tall buildings, in emergency situations. This not only saves lives, but also lessens injuries and severe diseases. Another advantage is that equipment used for evacuation is hidden when it is not needed. Yet another advantage is that equipment used for evacuation can also be used for transportation of fire fighters and their equipment to upper floors of a building, which can for example help to protect load bearing structures, reduce risk of collapse and limit damage to property. And yet another advantage is that evacuation equipment can in some cases also be used for other purposes, such as lifting stuff to upper floors of the building, or bringing cars out from a parking garage in a basement. An ^¬ other advantage is also the fact that evacuation equipment is outside the building perimeter, which enables more effi ^¬ cient use of internal spaces for other purposes. This is ex ^¬ tremely valuable in tall buildings that typically have small floor areas.

In the following, the invention will be described in detail by the aid of example embodiments by referring to the at ^¬ tached simplified and diagrammatic drawings, wherein Fig. 1 presents in a simplified and diagrammatic side view, and cut in a vertical direction, a tall building, in which the arrangement according to the invention is used,

Fig. 2 presents in a simplified and diagrammatic side view an evacuation balcony, which belongs to the arrangement according to the invention,

Fig. 3 presents in a simplified and diagrammatic top view an evacuation balcony, which belongs to the arrangement according to the invention,

Fig. 4 presents in a simplified and diagrammatic top view a building, in which the arrangement according to the invention is used and

Fig. 5 presents in a simplified and diagrammatic side view a part of a building and an evacuation balcony.

Figure 1 presents in a simplified and diagrammatic side view a tall building, in which the arrangement according to the invention is used. The building 1 has been built on a foundation 2 and it has several floors above the ground and three basement floors. The second basement floor is a park ^¬ ing garage with exit ways 3. Underground, next to outside walls 4 of the building 1 are pits 5 for evacuation balco ^¬ nies 6a and 6b. There can be evacuation balconies next to each wall of the building. In normal situations, when evacuation balconies are not needed, they are kept partially or completely in the pits 5 underground.

In figure 1 two evacuation balconies 6a and 6b are shown. In the situation of figure 1, evacuation balcony 6a on the right side of the building is in use. The evacuation balcony 6a has been lifted up to the height of some floor of the up ^¬ per part of the building 1. People can now escape from the building from that floor by entering the evacuation balcony 6a. Then the evacuation balcony 6a can be moved to some other floor to rescue more people or driven down to the ground and bring people safe. Evacuation balcony 6a can also be driven down to the second basement floor, so that people can exit through exit ways 3.

The pits 5 are equipped with lids or hatches 7, which close the pits 5 from above when evacuation balconies are not in use. In the situation of figure 1, the hatch 7 of the pit on the right side of the building 1 is open. The open hatch is shown to point upwards, but it can be turned further, so that it would rest against the ground. People can be brought down to ground level where they can exit the evacuation bal ^¬ cony to the ground, or to basement where they can exit through exit ways 3. In the situation of figure 1, the evacuation balcony 6b on the left side of the building 1 is not in use and it is in its pit 5 and the hatch of that pit is closed.

Figure 2 presents in a simplified and diagrammatic side view an evacuation balcony, which belongs to the arrangement ac ^¬ cording to the invention. The evacuation balcony 6 is in its pit 5 underground next to the wall 4 and the hatch 7 above is closed, so that the evacuation balcony 6 is hidden. Guide rails 8 are attached to the wall 4, which guide rails 8 are arranged to guide the evacuation balcony when it is moved up and down. The evacuation balcony 6 comprises a supporting element 9, such as a cantilever beam truss, which is at ^¬ tached to the guide rails 8, a floor 10, side fences or walls 11, a roof 12 and a power source 13, such as combus ^¬ tion engine. If the evacuation balcony 6 is needed, the hatch 7 is opened and the evacuation balcony 6 is lifted up.

In this embodiment of the invention the evacuation balcony 6 is driven by its own power source 13, but instead of an own power source, it can be driven by an external power source, for example by a hoisting machine or a fire engine via hoisting ropes or chains adjacent to the wall 4 of the building 1.

Figure 3 presents in a simplified and diagrammatic top view an evacuation balcony, which belongs to the arrangement ac ^¬ cording to the invention. In this embodiment of the invention the evacuation balcony 6 is moved up and down with rack and pinion method. So, the guide rails 8 attached to the wall 4 are equipped with racks and the evacuation balcony 6 is equipped with pinions 14, which are attached to the power source 13. For the sake of clarity the power source 13 is not presented. Instead of a rack and pinion method, moving of the evacuation balcony 6 up and down can be arranged with some other method, for example with chains or ropes. The evacuation balcony 6 is also equipped with guides 15, which are attached to the guide rails 8 to guide the moving of the evacuation balcony 6 and to prevent the balcony 6 from falling sideways. Figure 4 presents in a simplified and diagrammatic top view a building, in which the arrangement according to the invention is used. Next to two walls of the building 1 are three parallel evacuation balconies 6. The balconies 6 can also be only one or two on each side of the building or more than three. Also there can be one or more balconies only on one side of the building. Each evacuation balcony 6 can be driven separately and people can be rescued substantially simultaneously using different balconies 6 for different floors. Stairs and elevators are marked in the figure with number 16.

Figure 5 presents in a simplified and diagrammatic side view a part of the building 1 and an evacuation balcony 6, which has been lifted to a desired floor. In the wall 4 there is a door 17, which people can use to enter to the evacuation balcony 6. Instead of a door, passage to the evacuation bal ^¬ cony 6 can be different, for example a window that can be opened or broken. On the wall 4 of the building 1 there are vertical guide rails 8 to guide the evacuation balcony 6 when it is moved up and down. The roof 12 protects people if something, e.g. burning objects, drops from above.

The guide rails 8 are attached onto the outer edge of the wall 4, so that they can be seen on the fagade of the build ^¬ ing 1 or the guide rails 8 are hidden behind class or cover panels, which are made e.g. from aluminum or some other suitable material. In case that the guide rails 8 are hid ^¬ den, the evacuation balcony 6 is equipped with a wedge or plow or similar, which is arranged to break class or cover panels when the evacuation balcony 6 is lifted up. In addi- tion of guiding the balconies 6 the guide rails 8 are equipped with means to prevent the balcony 6 from falling sideways or outwards from the wall 4 of the building.

There can also be two or more evacuation balconies 6, which are fitted to same guide rails 8. In this case, for in ^¬ stance, one evacuation balcony can operate at the upper part of the building 1 and another evacuation balcony can operate at the lower part of the building along the same guide rails 8. In this kind of arrangement, the balconies can be driven one above the other and then people can be moved, for in ^¬ stance, from the upper evacuation balcony to the lower evacuation balcony. When the evacuation balconies 6 are not in use, they are kept in shared pit 5, the lower evacuation balcony on the bottom of the pit 5 and the upper evacuation balcony on the top of the lower evacuation balcony.

The evacuation balcony 6 can also be like a double-decker elevator and have two or more floors instead of one. That way the capacity of the evacuation balcony 6 can be increased .

It is obvious to the person skilled in the art that the in ^¬ vention is not restricted to the examples described above but that it may be varied within the scope of the claims presented below.