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Posted By Gerry Mcaleney
Hi , what are the procedures for evacuating wheelchair users from floors above ground level.We have some staff trained in Evac chair use but some situations don't cater for this.eg a v. large built person would need 2 persons to help them and this may be risky, i have been advised in the past that if a wheel chair user is prohibited from safe egress for whatever reason , that they should be located in a room fitted with a ' fire door' and emergency services tols of their situation and location upon arrival.any alternatives or proper procs. for such situations.thanks
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Posted By Gavin Gibson
Gerry
There are 2 basic issues here - risks to the person in the wheelchair and risks to others. During an evacuation, whether a drill or real, carrying somebody diownstairs with an evac chair poses a manual handling risk to the lifters, a fall could effectively blosk the stairwell and injure people, and it would impede the exit of others. You could either insist on wheelchair staff / visitors being restricted to the ground floor only, have any lifts uprated to being fireproof and hence available for use (very expensive), or create safe havens at the tops of stairs. a safe haven is simply an area that has at least 2 sets of firedoors between it and any potential fire. Naturally you would need to ensure that the wheelchair user was left accompanied in the safe haven by another member of staff, that the firebirgade were informed immediately of their location and ideally that the people in the haven had access to some form of communication - possibly a mobile phone. Best bet is to talk to the brigade and your insurers and get their advice.
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Posted By Martin
The safe haven or protected area is the option that has been decided on to back up the evac chairs here. The lift lobby is protected by fire doors and provides enough space for people to wait without blocking the way. We have also provided intercoms in these areas with direct access to the ground floor for communicating with the fire service if people decide to remain on their floor (with their accompanying officer).
When looking into this, consult with the fire and Rescue Service for advice. Also 'Fire Safety, an employers guide' isbn 0113412290 is very useful. And, most importantly, the wheelchair users themselves should be involved in working the procedure out as they should guide you on how they would prefer to be evacuated and what would work best for them taking into account their own needs and abilities.
Hope this helps.
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Posted By Gerry Mcaleney
Hi , Thanks to you both Gavin and Martin your suggestions will be followed up and i will consult the the wheelchair user and seek advice from someone within the fire and rescue service...Gerry
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Posted By shaun mckeever
I find a common problem with many buildings I visit is that the procedures for evacuation of disabled persons is to take them to a refuge point and then leave them there until the fire brigade arrives. That may be OK if the fire station is just around the corner but what if the building is in the middle of knowhere and the nearest station is twenty minutes away, manned by retained firefighters. Obviuosly that method is flawed.
Gerry one of things that is perfectly acceptable to do is to use the firefighting lift (if the building has one) to assist in evacuating disabled persons. Once the fire brigade arrive they will commandeer the lift and take over responsibility for completeing any further evacuations.
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Posted By Ken Taylor
Whilst the use of refuges ('safe havens') will 'buy time', the fire authorities now take the view that the employer must have a plan for evacuating everyone including wheelchair users. This should be taken into account as part of the fire risk assessment. I find this far from satisfactory - having been trained in the days when the system was to leave it to the fire brigade. Whilst the DDA gives a right of access to non-ambulant disabled persons unless the discrimination of refused access is reasonable, the Building Regulations have not 'kept up' and so there isn't any requirement for evacuation lifts even for new-build (and so designers are often not installing them on cost grounds). So, whilst I have no doubt that the fire brigade will continue to rescue wheelchair users from refuges, employers and persons in control of buildings will have to have plans that say that they will achieve this themselves whether it be by Evac-chairs, in users own wheelchairs (as suggested as the usually-preferred option in the BS) or by other means - or else, regrettably, argue for reasonable discrimination and confine some persons to the ground floor.
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