BUILDING EVACUATION SYSTEM WITH POSITIVE ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First Claim
1. An emergency evacuation method, comprising:
- an emergency notification and response system receiving information from a fire alarm system indicating that a fire event is in progress;
sending a first message to a communication device under the control of a first building occupant proximate to the fire event that includes a prompt requesting the first building occupant to respond by confirming that a fire event is in progress or not; and
if a response to the first message is received from the first building occupant confirming that a fire event is in progress, using information in the response to select the most appropriate one of a set of two or more building evacuation plans stored in association with the emergency notification and response system, and sending an evacuation message to a first group of two or more building occupants including information prompting the occupants to leave the building according to the selected evacuation plan.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An emergency notification and response system is linked to a fire alarm system, a security system and to a communication network over which it sends and receives emergency messages to and from building occupants and to emergency response personnel. The emergency notification and response system comprises a notification module which operates to receive signals from a fire detection system and send one or more messages to building occupants to investigate the validity of a possible fire event, and to respond to the message with an indication that a fire event is in progress or not. Depending upon information received in the response, the notification module sends an evacuation message to a selected sub-set of the building occupants that includes instructions for evacuating the building.
-
Citations
22 Claims
-
1. An emergency evacuation method, comprising:
-
an emergency notification and response system receiving information from a fire alarm system indicating that a fire event is in progress; sending a first message to a communication device under the control of a first building occupant proximate to the fire event that includes a prompt requesting the first building occupant to respond by confirming that a fire event is in progress or not; and if a response to the first message is received from the first building occupant confirming that a fire event is in progress, using information in the response to select the most appropriate one of a set of two or more building evacuation plans stored in association with the emergency notification and response system, and sending an evacuation message to a first group of two or more building occupants including information prompting the occupants to leave the building according to the selected evacuation plan. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. An emergency notification and response system, comprising:
-
a computation device having non-volatile computer memory in which is stored a set of computer instructions that operate to process a fire alarm system signal received by the computation device over a communication network, and to use the results of the processed fire alarm signal to generate and send a first message to a communication device under the control of a first building occupant proximate to the fire event that includes a prompt requesting the first building occupant to respond by confirming that a fire event is in progress or not; and the computation device receiving a response to the first message from the first building occupant including information confirming that a fire event is in progress, using information in the response to select the most appropriate one of a set of two or more building evacuation plans stored in association with non-volatile computer memory, and sending an evacuation message to a first group of two or more building occupants including information prompting the occupants to leave the building according to the selected evacuation plan. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
Specification