Patent ID: 8151941

Claim:
An evacuation system for a building comprising: a plurality of vertical transporters, at least one of said plurality of vertical transporters including multiple platforms arranged for selectable communication with multiple floors of said building, for at least partially simultaneous loading of persons onto said multiple platforms from said multiple floors; at least one building mounted stabilizing element cooperating with said at least one of said plurality of vertical transporters for stabilizing said multiple platforms against lateral forces; and at least one controller operative in an ingress mode of operation to position said multiple platforms simultaneously at different ones of said multiple floors of said building said at least one of said plurality of vertical transporters being operative to at least partially simultaneously lower said multiple platforms, when loaded with said persons, along said at least one building mounted stabilizing element, to a level at which egress of persons may safely occur, said at least one controller being operative to individually control individual ones of said plurality of vertical transporters wherein multiple ones of said platforms of different transporters may be simultaneously positioned in communication with different groups of multiple floors of said building for simultaneous evacuation loading.