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Posted By Elizabeth Hallows
I would be very grateful for your advice. I've been asked to make recommendations regarding a gentleman who works on the first floor of a Georgian building, accessed by an open staircase of 14 steps. He has severe back problems and walks with a stick. He can manage the stairs without help, but more slowly than someone without a disability (he takes 35 seconds to descend, around twice as long as someone not disabled). What do we need to put in place for fire evacuation? He's happy to accept that he'd go down the stairs last in that instance, so as not to hold others up, and hates the idea of an evac chair. I'm also not sure that any of the other workers would be up to lowering an evac chair and him down the stairs. He wants to continue to work in this room, with the rest of the team.
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Posted By Keith Archer.
Hi Elizabeth,
I would say that 35 seconds is not too bad for someone to evacuate the building. If you are considering using an evac chair have you worked out how long this procedure would take? waiting for every one else to descend then taking out the chair? the need for the person getting in and securing themselves? the requirement of manual handling of the person and chair down the steps (especially in a panic situation)? how heavy is this person? All time consuming. On top of this taking into account the individuals own feelings and opinions for his safe evacuation. It would probably be better and quicker to provide an escort for this person. What you need to do is carry out a risk assessment.
Hope this helps
Keith
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Posted By Richard Mathews
agree with Keith, an extra 35 seconds is neither here nor there when the escape route should have at least 30 mins. protection.
Richard
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Posted By Ken Taylor
In addition to agreeing with the above, I would just add that, as we are dealing with a Georgian building with an open staircase, it would be worth checking that there is a fire-protected route to a place of safety and whether there is a need for automatic fire detection if the stairway leads to another room.
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Posted By J Knight
Agree with all of the above; it apparently took 40 seconds per staircase in the World Trade Centre, twice what had been shown in practices. It seems that practice evacuations had not taken into account the fact that everybody in the building might be trying to leave at once...
John
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Posted By David-J-Jones
have to agree with the previous comments. Did a practice evacuation with an evac chair and a mobility impaired person this morning, from first floor to exterior. Wheel chair to evac chair transfer probably took thirty seconds on it's own. Transfer to stair case then down half flight turn around landing and down to ground floor probably about a minute.
Risk assessment with regular reviews especially if the person has a degenerative condition .
Dave
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Posted By Pete Driver
Not completely sure why you would need to do a risk assessment (a panacea for all ailments maybe?).
Do a practice evacuation with all staff, arrange for this one person to descend on one side of the staircase so as not to impede others. See if it works, formalise the arrangement. Check it now and then (especially when new or temp staff in place).
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