In “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” Tom Cruise scaled the façade of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai using high-tech suction cups and a zip cable.

If he were in a dangerous situation inside the building, however, the Pasadena company that designed the building’s emergency procedures recommends finding the nearest safe room and waiting for assistance.

Building Safety Solutions Inc. announced last week that it completed the program that teaches emergency procedures to tenants in that building – the world’s tallest. It’s the latest milestone for the 25-person company, which over the past decade has built a name for itself in the niche market of emergency-preparedness software.

Building Safety has been hired by managers at several landmark U.S. high-rises, including the US Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles, the tallest building west of the Mississippi, as well as Rockefeller Center in New York and Chicago’s John Hancock Center.

Burj Khalifa was the company’s first international project. Designing emergency procedures for a 163-story mixed-used building that features hotel rooms, observation decks and office space was, indeed, a tall order.

“We had to do our homework and learn about all the regulations in Dubai as well as its culture,” said Hector Gomez, chief executive. “Each floor in the building added another layer of complexity.”

Burj Khalifa is managed by Emaar Properties, a real estate company based in the United Arab Emirates. The general manager of the building is an associate of Building Safety’s former client at the Hancock Center.

The emergency plans for Burj Khalifa were matched with what the building’s designers had incorporated into the building, such as “areas of refuge” – pressurized, fireproof rooms where tenants can seek shelter during an emergency.

There are also cultural mores to take into account when developing safety protocols for a building in Dubai, which is located in the conservative Muslim country of the United Arab Emirates. For example, the training had to state that in the event of a heart attack, only a female should help another female.

In the animations Building Safety created, which are similar to preflight airline videos, most men are depicted wearing traditional Arab headdress, while the women had to be shown in traditional clothing.

“Dubai is a highly diversified kind of city where the locals are a minority to the immigrants,” Gomez said. “But the way (locals) are shown has to be consistent with the way they look.”

Core philosophy

Having flexibility with the training techniques plays into what Gomez said is the core philosophy of Building Safety.

Training videos have long had a reputation for dullness, but the company tries to get away from that by creating an interactive online interface that allows users to peruse the content at their own pace and time frame. It’s like doing traffic school online rather than having to sit through a class.

Gomez started the company in 2001, using his background in commercial building inspection and hitching it to the Internet.

The Sept. 11 attacks occurred soon after he set up shop. He didn’t get a lot of business as a result, however, because reaction focused less on safety training and more toward increasing the number of security guards on hand.

“It isn’t financially sustainable to keep on 50 to 60 security guards” Gomez said. “It’s better if everybody in the building is prepared.”

Martha Cox-Nitikman, public policy director for the L.A. chapter of the Building Owners and Managers Association, said the two approaches are compatible.

“I don’t see it as an either-or situation,” Cox-Nitikman said. “Having guards gives a necessary visible defense. You need both that and training to do well.”

Her organization has worked with Building Safety in helping to revamp guidelines in Los Angeles for evacuating tall buildings. She said the company’s online and individual approach to training is the way of the future for emergency preparedness.

The companys’s staff includes engineers, graphic designers and 3-D modelers. Buildings Safety first charges an up-front development fee, ranging from the midthousands for smaller buildings to a few hundred thousand dollars to clients on the Burj Khalifa end, to create the training model specifically for the building. Then the company assesses a regular fee, from hundreds to thousands of dollars a month, for the remainder of the contract.

The experience with Burj Khalifa has given Gomez and his company the taste for international buildings. He sees them expanding in that market as well as embracing burgeoning mobile technology platforms.

“Right now, people can download the emergency info into their smartphones,” Gomez said. “We like to think of our product as a guardian angel – something that’s always with you.”