Any Fire Safety Officers - Evac Chair question.
Discussion
I have just been told that the evac chair we have onsite has to be hung up in reception, no major problems there except the advice given to me by my clients fire safety officer is that in the event of an evac one of my Guards will have to head back into the building with the chair o take it to where it will be needed.
My questions are:
If you have evac chairs is there a guidline on their placement? My previous client insisted on one chare per staircase per floor. Possibly overkill but much easier in the event of an evac and more sensible than heading back into the building after the alarm has gone off.
What are the guidlines on heading back into a building in evac? As far as i am aware no safe areas or refuges have been confirmed onsite.
I have spent most of the morning looking for a single definitive answer and i can't seem to find one anywhere so some help would be appreciated.
My questions are:
If you have evac chairs is there a guidline on their placement? My previous client insisted on one chare per staircase per floor. Possibly overkill but much easier in the event of an evac and more sensible than heading back into the building after the alarm has gone off.
What are the guidlines on heading back into a building in evac? As far as i am aware no safe areas or refuges have been confirmed onsite.
I have spent most of the morning looking for a single definitive answer and i can't seem to find one anywhere so some help would be appreciated.
I don't claim to be an expert on this because my training was 'brief' however, the whole point of evac chairs that I have used in the past was that the are sited at the top of the stairs / fire escapes. Their main purpose, to allow a person with mobility difficulties to be evacuated safely in the event of a fire as using a lift is a big no no.
Unless your reception is sited above the ground floor then it seems to be a very odd choice for a location. In the event of a fire it would require someone to run into a burning building, carry the evac chair up the stairs to the location of the disabled person, strap them in and then attempt to navigate them back down the stairs. Factor in, smoke, flames, darkness, sprinklers and a bit of general flapping and the nett result will be a crispy wheelchair user stranded at the top of the stairs, a further crispy person stuck halfway up the stairs with an evac chair wedged between them and the wall and a perplexed person wondering around the carpark with a hiviz and clipboard trying to work out where everyone is. Ok, a 'slightly' exaggerated scenario but my how we love 'what ifs'!
Oh, and generally the 'elf and safety' type bods take a dim view of running back into burning buildings unless you are Kurt Russell or Bruce Willis.
Hope this helps a little, like I say, I am by no means an expert, it's just one of the many hats I have to wear at work following some half arsed training and box ticking ;-)
Unless your reception is sited above the ground floor then it seems to be a very odd choice for a location. In the event of a fire it would require someone to run into a burning building, carry the evac chair up the stairs to the location of the disabled person, strap them in and then attempt to navigate them back down the stairs. Factor in, smoke, flames, darkness, sprinklers and a bit of general flapping and the nett result will be a crispy wheelchair user stranded at the top of the stairs, a further crispy person stuck halfway up the stairs with an evac chair wedged between them and the wall and a perplexed person wondering around the carpark with a hiviz and clipboard trying to work out where everyone is. Ok, a 'slightly' exaggerated scenario but my how we love 'what ifs'!
Oh, and generally the 'elf and safety' type bods take a dim view of running back into burning buildings unless you are Kurt Russell or Bruce Willis.
Hope this helps a little, like I say, I am by no means an expert, it's just one of the many hats I have to wear at work following some half arsed training and box ticking ;-)
chukka64 said:
I don't claim to be an expert on this because my training was 'brief' however, the whole point of evac chairs that I have used in the past was that the are sited at the top of the stairs / fire escapes. Their main purpose, to allow a person with mobility difficulties to be evacuated safely in the event of a fire as using a lift is a big no no.
Unless your reception is sited above the ground floor then it seems to be a very odd choice for a location. In the event of a fire it would require someone to run into a burning building, carry the evac chair up the stairs to the location of the disabled person, strap them in and then attempt to navigate them back down the stairs. Factor in, smoke, flames, darkness, sprinklers and a bit of general flapping and the nett result will be a crispy wheelchair user stranded at the top of the stairs, a further crispy person stuck halfway up the stairs with an evac chair wedged between them and the wall and a perplexed person wondering around the carpark with a hiviz and clipboard trying to work out where everyone is. Ok, a 'slightly' exaggerated scenario but my how we love 'what ifs'!
Oh, and generally the 'elf and safety' type bods take a dim view of running back into burning buildings unless you are Kurt Russell or Bruce Willis.
Hope this helps a little, like I say, I am by no means an expert, it's just one of the many hats I have to wear at work following some half arsed training and box ticking ;-)
Used to be on the fire party at work and my experience was the evac chair would be at the top of the stairs for the reasons posted above.Unless your reception is sited above the ground floor then it seems to be a very odd choice for a location. In the event of a fire it would require someone to run into a burning building, carry the evac chair up the stairs to the location of the disabled person, strap them in and then attempt to navigate them back down the stairs. Factor in, smoke, flames, darkness, sprinklers and a bit of general flapping and the nett result will be a crispy wheelchair user stranded at the top of the stairs, a further crispy person stuck halfway up the stairs with an evac chair wedged between them and the wall and a perplexed person wondering around the carpark with a hiviz and clipboard trying to work out where everyone is. Ok, a 'slightly' exaggerated scenario but my how we love 'what ifs'!
Oh, and generally the 'elf and safety' type bods take a dim view of running back into burning buildings unless you are Kurt Russell or Bruce Willis.
Hope this helps a little, like I say, I am by no means an expert, it's just one of the many hats I have to wear at work following some half arsed training and box ticking ;-)
GadgeS3C said:
chukka64 said:
I don't claim to be an expert on this because my training was 'brief' however, the whole point of evac chairs that I have used in the past was that the are sited at the top of the stairs / fire escapes. Their main purpose, to allow a person with mobility difficulties to be evacuated safely in the event of a fire as using a lift is a big no no.
Unless your reception is sited above the ground floor then it seems to be a very odd choice for a location. In the event of a fire it would require someone to run into a burning building, carry the evac chair up the stairs to the location of the disabled person, strap them in and then attempt to navigate them back down the stairs. Factor in, smoke, flames, darkness, sprinklers and a bit of general flapping and the nett result will be a crispy wheelchair user stranded at the top of the stairs, a further crispy person stuck halfway up the stairs with an evac chair wedged between them and the wall and a perplexed person wondering around the carpark with a hiviz and clipboard trying to work out where everyone is. Ok, a 'slightly' exaggerated scenario but my how we love 'what ifs'!
Oh, and generally the 'elf and safety' type bods take a dim view of running back into burning buildings unless you are Kurt Russell or Bruce Willis.
Hope this helps a little, like I say, I am by no means an expert, it's just one of the many hats I have to wear at work following some half arsed training and box ticking ;-)
Used to be on the fire party at work and my experience was the evac chair would be at the top of the stairs for the reasons posted above.Unless your reception is sited above the ground floor then it seems to be a very odd choice for a location. In the event of a fire it would require someone to run into a burning building, carry the evac chair up the stairs to the location of the disabled person, strap them in and then attempt to navigate them back down the stairs. Factor in, smoke, flames, darkness, sprinklers and a bit of general flapping and the nett result will be a crispy wheelchair user stranded at the top of the stairs, a further crispy person stuck halfway up the stairs with an evac chair wedged between them and the wall and a perplexed person wondering around the carpark with a hiviz and clipboard trying to work out where everyone is. Ok, a 'slightly' exaggerated scenario but my how we love 'what ifs'!
Oh, and generally the 'elf and safety' type bods take a dim view of running back into burning buildings unless you are Kurt Russell or Bruce Willis.
Hope this helps a little, like I say, I am by no means an expert, it's just one of the many hats I have to wear at work following some half arsed training and box ticking ;-)
good shout at asking the Fire service. Will do that later.
As someone a couple of posts above said - keep it near to a person with restricted mobility. If your building is only ground floor then it might be ok at reception. If it is 3 floors then keep it near to the person with restricted mobility. We have 2 at our site and both are situated on the 2nd floor in disabled toilets. We also carry out a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) for anyone returning to work with a mobility issue. If they had a broken leg we would probably keep them on the ground floor where possible. You will also need to speak to the person with the mobility restriction as they might not like the idea of being put on an Evac-chair in teh event of an emergency.
davepoth said:
Would it not make sense to put it next to the person with restricted mobility?
Only if they're not allowed to leave their desk at any point during the day. And you don't have any other restricted mobility visitors. And you make sure that no one is ever injured in the fires you plan to have.In short, no.
We have Peeps and various other things. and aside from this area of confusion i am pretty good with the various H&S rules for offices (kind of a large part of my job), I am juat struggling to find any official guidance for evac chairs. Lots of official looking documents out there but they mostly turn out to be Corporate guidelines of sales brochures. It's bloody frustrating, and it's cutting into my PH time.
Can't think why anyone would suggest the guard to go back in the building a big no no. Can't see why the chair can't be on the staircase of the evacuation route. Some things to think about if you haven't already.Have you got more than the guard trained? Ideally a couple of people who work near person who needs it. Have you had a go with said person strapped in? Have you had a go on the other exit routes should you need them. Is your FRA updated to include this? Sorry if you've covered all this already. You probably want to do a monthly visual check on it as well.
davepoth said:
Would it not make sense to put it next to the person with restricted mobility?
depends on how many , if any , people regularly use the building who fit that description ... and the likelihood of others needing it - certainly one chair per stairwell could be a sensible answer ... but it's going to depend on 1. number of people who are likely to require it
2. number and nature of fire escape stairwells
3. the height and floor area of the building
also the numbers of people needing it may not be known until such time as an alarm depending o nthe nature of the use of the building and any injuries sustained ( even someone tripping and spraining their ankle might need it)
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