Subscribe“Employers also have duties to take precautions against fire, provide adequate means of escape and means of fighting fire” – UK Health & Safety Law 1989.
Since the Year of the Disabled in 1981 society has exerted tremendous pressure to provide access to all buildings for all persons. The 1985 Education Act provided the opportunity for disabled youngsters to become part of mainstream education, and the Building Act helped ensure that, wherever possible, access for all became a realistic possibility.
All new buildings have easy access and many older buildings have been or are being modified with ramps, toilets and wheelchair/chairlift, etc. But the last great barrier to access is egress, and this important area must be considered when access for the disabled and the mobility impaired is provided. In order to give the mobility impaired equal opportunities in the workplace they must be given an equal chance of surviving emergencies.
Most multi-storey buildings provide easy access via escalators, lifts and ramps for wheelchair users yet in the event of a fire we are all too aware of the warning sign, "In the event of fire do not use lift". However, stair descent can be impossible. Furthermore, it is easy to see the problem of evacuation as an individual, personal problem and to provide evacuation equipment and staff training only in the area where the disabled/mobility impaired person works.
The facts are that in the course of their day's work wheelchair users and others with a mobility impairment will move around the building as freely as anyone else. This is often overlooked when methods of quick and efficient egress are being considered.
The 1993 and 2001 events at the World Trade Center are a point in fact.
In the February 1993 World Trade Center incident John Abruzzo worked on the 69th floor of Tower 1 as an associate accountant for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. For John, a C5-6 quadriplegic, to be evacuated from the building took six hours. On 11 September 2001 John, still working on the 69th floor, did not have the luxury of time, for within two hours of the planes' impact the building was razed to the ground, but John is still alive. Why?
Shortly after the 1993 bombing a new disaster plan was developed and implemented. Included in the plan was the purchase of a number of products and systems to aid in the evacuation and life-safety of World Trade Center occupants. These products proved successful on 11 September. Lights stayed on while people evacuated, ventilation systems in the stairwells minimised smoke infiltration, and the Evac+Chair purchased by the Port Authority became a lifesaver.
The experiences of the Port Authority in these two events illustrate and reinforce several lessons from which we can all learn.
Risk Analysis, planning, implementation, preparedness
One is the importance of risk analysis, planning and implementation for the emergency evacuation of the disabled. Indeed, with legislation now in place under the Health & Safety at Work Act, Disability Discrimination Act and Manual Handling Directive, all officers of companies are responsible and liable for carrying out risk assessments within their organisations.
The words "adequate means of escape" take on new meaning, and planning officers must question what is "adequate" when one considers that the law is deliberately vague about this and relies on the legal definition of "reasonably foreseeable".
On the face of it risk assessment is a management responsibility, and management must assess, decide and resolve the problems in each building floor by floor, from rest rooms to cafeteria, from stockrooms to offices. This assessment could, for example, include exit signage (either photoluminescent or independent lighting system); the positioning of such signs, bearing in mind that smoke rises to the ceiling and can block out the investment; and even the provision of smoke hoods, particularly those which filter out carbon monoxide and cyanide gases. Key personnel may also be identified by Hi-Viz tabards and identity labels, and, if budgets allow, internal communicating systems.
It is, however, not enough to do the analysis or to make plans. The continued construction of these 'vertical villages' of offices, shops, cinemas, restaurants and parking lots is a reality. As the experience of the New York Port Authority illustrates plans have to be implemented.
Preparedness is also essential. Provision of the correct equipment only ensures the safety of a person who is mobility impaired if the correct training in the use of that equipment and frequent practice during escape drills is carried out. It took John and his colleagues 90 minutes to get down 69 floors and they exited the tower and were out of harm's way no more than 15 minutes before Tower 1 collapsed.
Although designed to be guided by one person, three to four people handled the special evacuation chair while heading downstairs, rotating positions as necessary. Had proper training been carried out this time would have been reduced dramatically. Safety and Personnel Officers are aware of the issues, but the need for all staff and the mobility impaired themselves to be trained in the evacuation of the disabled is not always appreciated.
The planning and preparedness must include guidelines and procedures for use, which are practised, practised and practised again, until people know how to use the equipment most effectively. (Frequent practices will also highlight any problems so they can be addressed prior to an emergency.) A plan is only as good as the confidence people place in it; without that people will respond in their own way. This means factoring in resources for the training of new staff, regular retraining of others and the regular servicing of the equipment to ensure maximum effectiveness.
The death toll at the WTC on 11 September 2001 is now limited to fewer than 3,000 people, but for some time it was thought to be higher. One of the problems was that it was difficult to know who and where people were in the buildings because of the destruction of most records, highlighting another lesson that can be at least reinforced. Accurate records should be kept and at different locations, one being off site.
In addition, although it has always been recognised that there is a need to provide a means of quick egress for wheelchair users the problem is wider than this. Persons in wheelchairs are obvious, but there are others who have conditions which may be hidden that might affect their use of the stairs in an emergency, for example asthma or a heart condition; if others are not made aware of the situation their fast and effective evacuation in an emergency could be jeopardised, as could the safety of others.
Patrick Cox, Divisional Officer in The Fire Service College's Fire & Safety Division, in regard to the 1993 bombing of the WTC, has stated that, ".... the evacuation had then to be done down the stairs, an exercise that resulted in a number of deaths, most of them ... suffering 'mild' disability, that is, having a known but not disabling medical condition". This difficulty needs to be addressed. One way is to have a notice at reception asking people who might have a problem with the stairs to identify themselves when they arrive on the premises. Arrangements can then be put in hand to ensure their safe evacuation should such an emergency arise. People are then prepared.
The rights of the disabled have finally been established in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 by providing access and egress to buildings which were previously denied. Employers must now review their new responsibilities, duty of care and impartiality, and include safe evacuation for all in their risk assessments as is now required under British and European Law.
There are very few products that meet the criteria of being a stairway evacuation device. The unique Evac+Chair offers' the best means of fast and efficient escape without hindering other stairway users. It requires only one person to bring a mobility impaired person quickly from anywhere in a building without endangering themselves or delaying their colleagues, surely a massive step forward for everyone involved with staff and visitor safety.
The Evac+Chair has won the Industrial Designers of America - Design of the Decade Award and has been supplied throughout the UK since 1985.
