Posted By Robert Ball Dear All Old chestnut I am afraid but I was wondering if there is any new information. We occupy 3 floors of an 18-storey building and have 2 members of staff who are in wheelchairs although they do have some limited mobility. Previously we have operated a “refuge” system, which has worked well. The local fire service has now said that this is unacceptable to leave them alone in the refuge and require us to nominate persons to stay with them (we did offer individual mobile phones for contact purposes). I fail to see how this is a sensible practice. I have looked at evac chairs and they remain a possibility, although I an issue with the delay of evacuation of other users and of course the manual handling/user confidence issues. Equally their mobility is such that they could in extreme cases walk down using the stairs, although this would take considerable time and require some assistance and again possible delay the evacuation of others. We have both our own and other company employees on 5 floors above, which is a lot of people to pass. As this is a modern shared multi occupancy building in prime location, I feel that some responsibility should be with the landlord to provide a fire evacuation lift. Interestingly the central areas on each floor are communal and are the responsibility of the landlord, which is also the area where the lifts and refuge areas are. These 2 people are vital and important members of our staff and we are not in any way looking at termination of employment. We need a solution that is both practicable, sensible and that does not endanger the 2 people or their work colleagues. Any ideas on the best way forward would be appreciated.

Posted By Merv Newman Can you move their place of work to the ground floor - even if it means imporoving their means of communication with colleagues on second and third floors ?

Posted By Robert Ball Many thanks for your responses. We are unable to relocate to the ground floor as it is a shared occupancy building and the ground floor is the reception area and building services. Having previously trialled an evac chair with one of the staff memebers who has cerebal palsey, he was unhappy with the feeling of insecurity in the chair and the "carriers" found it difficult due to his unpredicable movements. I am looking to see if I can divert the Fire Officer into looking at shared provision within the building as a landlord responsibility. There are 9 different companies that have offices withinn this tower block. It would not seem particularly unreasonable to convert one lift into an evacuation lift for use by all companies and visitors. I take the point about emplyer responsibilty, but in rality we are experiencing real difficulty in getting volunteers to stay with these people in the refuge points, this is compounded in that we operate a shift system. I would appereciate any thoughts on how we can improve our volunteer rate, has anybody had any particular sucess in this?. rgds Robert

Posted By Ken Taylor You could also try emphasising to prospective volunteers that they are not required to stay with the disabled person but to assist them to evacuate from the refuge to a designated place of safety as soon as it is safe to use the escape route.

Posted By George Wedgwood I agree with Maggie - that is basically the system we used at a former employer's HQ with 1000 staff and three floors. Lifts are not a suitable option as most will not trust them anyway, even if they are supposedly working. If you get evac volunteers, they should be vetted for reasonable physical capability to ensure they are not subject to undue exertion during the move - and the team should practice periodically. I have tried the evac chair (http://www.paraid.co.uk/evacchair/)and it worked fine, with little discomfort to the disabled person.