Rank: Forum user 
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Hi all,
Does anyone have any methodology when assessing how many evac chairs they may need in a premises.
I know its likely to be determined by the size of the organisation and how many mobility impaired staff you have.But whats the best plan for action for establishing the number needed in your opinions.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Rank: Forum user
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Hi Russ
We go with 1 per floor per emergency stairwell. We do not expect our evac-chair operators to go back upstairs to evacuate a second, third, etc... person. Problem then is, if there is more than one person requiring the use of a chair, who goes and who stays?
Saferay
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 1 user thanked saferay for this useful post.
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Rank: Forum user
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I have recommended exactly that Saferay, pleased to see that someone else has adopted the same strategy, thanks
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Rank: Super forum user
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I believe it is the evacuation times. A stair case should have 30min to 60min fire protection so for example evacuating 2 people down three storeys using one chair in 30/60min is feasible but impossible for 20 people.
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1 user thanked Alfasev for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Russ, another factor is the number of staircases you have.
In one of our buildings we had a staircase at each end with a minimum of 30 minutes protection which meant that we could, if necessary, carry out a horizontal evacuation.
Each landing on both sets was a refuge area with a telephone link to our fire control & our mobility impaired staff or visitors, along with a trained "buddy" would go to this area whilst everybody else evacuated.
When we came to decide how many evac chairs were needed, we decided on every alternative floor, but in "zig-zag" pattern so that all floors were covered.
However, one of our wheelchair users declared that he would refuse to get in one of the chairs & would be happy to go down on his bottom (not the actual term used!).
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1 user thanked Zyggy for this useful post.
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Rank: New forum user
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hello i'm new user.my name is john worne.Evac+Chair is fully equipped to provide the best training and equipment needed by large scale buildings and venues in the event of an emergency egress, stairway evacuation, building evacuation or fire evacuation situation. In order to meet fire and safety regulations, it is important for all large scale buildings to provide adequate evacuation products for those that should need them. regards john worne
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Rank: Forum user
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We have one on every second landing, but alternated by stair, if that makes sense?
Personally, I really dislike the design of evac chairs - a far from ideal solution, and only OK for people who can self transfer. I'm slaways surprised it's the best solution anyone has come up with to the problem.
Al
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Rank: Super forum user 
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This is interesting, but I’m struggling with the answers given. If you are in a building open to the public I can see you would have to make assumptions.
However, if for instance you have 3 people on one floor who are permanent workers, how can having only one be acceptable? The first user will need the same chair all the way to the bottom of however many flights of stairs there are. So do you then have someone going back into the burning building to take the chair back for the next person ? Then again for the third?
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Rank: Forum user
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Depends on the likelyhood of having multiple people who can't get themselves out the building. We don't consider it likely that this will be an issue in most buildings as we actually have relatively few people with limited mobility across our buildings, but every frequent user has an individual assessment which would identify the likelyhood of such a demand, and a response plan.
For public events we increase staff numbers, and have evac chairs on the alternative roues.
remember also that the stairwells will be 'safe zones' for a period, so re-entering whilst not ideal, is not the same as entering a 'burning building'.
Hope this helps?
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1 user thanked A Brown for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Further to my previous posting, we also considered how many PEEP's we had & how many would involve the use of an evac chair before deciding on numbers & locations.
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