Schindler’s Occupant Evacuation Operation System at New Bank of America Tower
Schindler’s Occupant Evacuation Operation System at New Bank of America Tower
A new Charlotte, North Carolina office tower has special elevators featuring Schindler Elevator Company’s Occupant Evacuation Operation (OEO) system.
With OEO, occupants of the building who cannot easily use stairs can use these elevators to quickly leave the building during an emergency. In most buildings, we see signs warning us not to try to use the elevators during a fire evacuation. With OEO, electronic displays and audio messages will inform occupants whether or not elevators can be used.
When I read this news, I was reminded of an incident years ago while we were preparing for a fire drill at the large three-story office building where I was working. My cubicle was on the second floor, not far froma fire exit stairway. One of my co-workers was a woman who relied on a cane to walk. She always used an elevator rather than the escalators or stairs. I asked the supervisor what we would need to do to help her if the fire alarm were to sound. He told me she should wait for the fire department to rescue her. I’m still a bit shocked by the instruction to leave someone alone to wait while we fled a building that might be filling with smoke. In a real situation, I hope we could carry that person to safety in a chair.
OEO would increase safety for occupants such as my co-worker. And even for occupants who are able to use stairs, evacuation from high floors will be faster by elevator.
The OEO solution makes it possible for special elevators to be used safely for emergency evacuation by enhanced integration of the elevator controls with the building’s fire-safety system. This allows the elevator to stop only at floors where there is no fire danger to the passengers. If the elevators cannot be used at all due to an intense fire, a message will tell people to use only the stairs.
Officials say these elevators require training for people who will occupy the building and training for firefighters. This information will be added when the fire drills are conducted in the building.
The new Bank of America Tower in uptown Charlotte is the first building on the east coast of the U.S. to have this feature. Schindler’s OEO solution was first introduced in the U.S in 2016 at the 43-story Park Tower at Transbay in San Francisco.
Gene Burke
Information for this article obtained from the following sources:
– Schindler News release dated September 6, 2016
– WBTV article by Dedrick Russell dated Sept. 5, 2019