High Rise Escape Systems is a developer of evacuation systems for people in medium- and high-rise buildings. With the GSA contract designation, the company will be able to market its emergency building escape technologies, the Guardian and Responder Emergency Evacuation Systems, to U.S. government branches. Company officials say deployment of its evacuation systems offers an escape capability up to 999 feet in the event of a fire, structural failure or a terrorist threat.

Officials say the five-year GSA designation adds to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Qualified Anti-Terrorism designation High Rise Escape Systems received in 2007.

"The U.S. government is the largest customer that a company can have," Ryan Alles, High Rise Escape Systems president, said in a statement. "This award by the GSA further establishes our company's credibility in both the domestic and the international marketplaces. …The recent uprising against the U.S. Embassy in Serbia is just one example where our products would have added a very crucial measure of risk management to help protect American lives."