The Problem
In case of a building fire it may take too long for firefighters to reach the burning floor and rescue occupants quickly. Ladders may not always be easy to put up and climbing back down also is slow and dangerous.
Solution
Jetpacks (Fig. 1) were invented over 20 years ago and have been featured in early James Bond films. The military has also been looking at possible application of this invention. The ideas seems to have captured peoples imagination but due to its inherent problems there has been very few practical applications for them. Their problem is similar to rocket problem, that is they cannot carry enough fuel for the flight to last long enough for it to be useful. There are companies who have used the idea and modified it to overcome this problem but has yet not seen its potential for firefighting and are using it for recreational purposes only (Fig. 2).
I came up with an idea before any of these innovation appeared, but as yet have not seen it used for firefighting. Interestingly, it has been the firefighters who have designed such jetpack (see videos 1 & 2) but still they have not thought of its benefits for rescuing. The closest application of this idea is in Dubai (Fig. 3) where they use jet-lifts to lift firefighters to the top of the building.
My design simply is jet pack powered by water with very high pressure. The firefighter wears it in less than a minute and connects the hose to the fire truck. The distinct feature of this design is the water is already available and provides the necessary pressure to lift a firefighter up to 20 meters easily. It is self stabilizing and can descend as smoothly as ascending. The water ejected also protects the firefighter and the rescuee from the fire. Is extremely flexible and quick to use to reach places where ladder cannot be deployed.
