I read somewhere on the Web that maybe a few years ago a prepared person managed to rescue himself and two coworkers from an office fire by doubling up his paracord and climbing down outside the building a floor or two to safety.

Any truth to this?

It is possible but none to safe. The slightest abrasion of the cord and you will land hard. Doubled Paracord may have 1000# tensile strength (not working strength) Climbing cords often have strengths in the 5000 - 10000 range and have greater abrasion-resistant outer mantles to prevent mishaps. OTOH staying in the fire is none to safe either.

Wait a minute: second story that's maximum 6 yards or 6 meters or 20 feet. You can jump that and roll, standard jump school stuff. Just my opinion.

True if you know how. The average office worker would be Dead On Impact from a 20 Foot drop and the resulting head injury. Unless of course the managed to Peg it in which case their femurs would break, severing thier femural artery and impaling thier abdomens those would blead out before the ambulance could get them to the hospital.

The exact quote I got from the Web page is:

"Recently a well pepared person managed to lower himself and three co-workers down 3 stories on a doubled up para cord rope during a fire."

So it was three floors, if it actually happened.

Do you have a website address or link?

My brother claims to have read (if that doesn't sound like an urban legend opening, I don't know what does <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) that there was a professional stuntman who escaped from the Hindenberg by jumping. He was at one end of the dirigible - when it caught fire, it tilted upward and he was in the end highest from the ground. He jumped (had no choice, really), managed to hit the ground in a tuck and roll, and survived (albeit with multiple broken bones and, I presume, a concussion or worse). He was the only person in that part of the balloon to survive. Supposedly.

I have never been able to confirm this, though. <img src="images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

http://www.btinternet.com/~damian.vincent/countrykit.html

Toward the bottom of the page.

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the link. Hmmm...I cruised the link, seems like this person is attempting to get their kits in order and put it on the web. Some of their links went to other places, I was able to look at the different kits though, very minimal descriptions.

The paracord passage quoted earlier is typical of the remainder of the kit content descriptions...

Although I looked for a link or email address to invite this person to ETS, I was unable to find one.

Comanche7

Minimal is right.

Here you go. Try this page: http://www.btinternet.com/~damian.vincent/Me.html

His email appears to be: me@damianv.com

I can't verify this story, but you may find this site useful in the future.
http://www.snopes.com/
Jack