Over the past several days I've been looking at some of the footage of the WTC attacks. The scenes of the jumpers have really sickened me and made me think of ways for people to get out of tall buildings. While most of the building was intact, their were several floors in which access to the stairs was blocked and the elevators may not have worked. I came up with a very simple solution to this problem, fireman poles. A couple of dozen of these poles could be placed on each floor. If the entrance to the stairs was blocked, by debris or fire, then a person could simply slide down a pole to the next floor and take the stairs from there.

Such a system would be easy, and cheap to install, on preexisting buildings. The area needed for them, including a safety rail around the opening, would only take up several square feet. With them taking up such a small area, they could be spread out all over each floor, greatly increasing the chance for people to have one nearby.