In a move that will certainly make all firefighters and safety personnel relatively amazed and happy, a Chinese man in his 70s invented a quick-escape slide to help people quickly run to safety in the event of a fire.

Zhou Miaorong, who lives in the 35th floor of a residential block located in Changning district in Shanghai, was inspired by a fire that happened to a high-rise block of flats to create an evacuation slide that runs through a whole building’s height, reports the South China Morning Post.

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Zhou started designing the slide back in 2010 and spent two years perfecting it, making a prototype and installing it in his own block to prove its efficiency. The finished project could accommodate up to 100 people at a time.

People escaping through the slide won’t have to worry about it being hard to use. The slide safely folds to the side of a staircase to save space when not in use, but in the event of a fire, it can easily be unlocked from the top of any stair in any floor. Zhou’s design made it even easier than that – only one lock needs to be taken off for the whole slide to be automatically set in place.

Those using the slide also need not worry about getting up upon reaching a floor below, as the whole slide is connected from top to bottom, making it a giant slide. Meaning, those sliding downwards only need to hop on it and stand when they’re at the end of the slide.

Safety is also something that Zhou looked into. The evacuation slide is made of stainless steel and aluminum ensuring its durability. Additionally, protective pads are available for users, stored on each floor.

According to a reporter from Thepaper.cn, a person sliding will run for three seconds on each floor. The reported also tested the slide, and ran from the 26th floor to the bottom in a total of 90 seconds.

The slide has since been patented and sold to different countries, including the United States, Russia, Japan, Singapore and Brazil.

TagsZhou Miaorong, slide, fire escape, block flats