EMERGENCY EVACUATIONS From All Perspectives
Steve Dering, Operations Manager at Direct Access Group, shares best practice when forming an inclusive evacuation plan.
Understanding the different evacuation requirements of disabled people is a key requirement for any building owner, leaseholder or manager that is the Responsible Person as defined by the Regulatory Fire Reform Order.
The government’s Supplementary Guide for Means of Escape for Disabled People is clear that the Fire and Rescue Service’s role in fire evacuation is to ensure that the means of escape for all people who may be in a building are both adequate and reasonable. Under fire safety legislation, it is the responsibility of the person(s) having responsibility for the building to provide a fire safety risk assessment that includes an emergency evacuation plan for everyone likely to be in the premises, including disabled people, and how it may be implanted. Article 14 (2)(b) of the Regulatory Reform Order 2005 specifies that it must be possible for persons to evacuate premises as quickly and safety as possible.
Academic research has illustrated a fear by disabled people of what may happen in the event of a fire. Some real-life examples of bad planning include strobe lights being positioned in a way that they cannot be seen by a person who is deaf or hard of hearing, somebody with limited mobility being leſt waiting in a refuge for assistance down the stairs during a drill and who was not informed that the drill was concluded and neurodiverse people experiencing panic attacks when unexpected alarms sound.
It is not just the 14.1 million disabled people in the UK who benefit from reassurance about fire safety, expecting mothers, people with temporary injuries and the fatigued also benefit from ease of egress.
So, what should we look for when creating an emergency evacuation plan? Firstly, we need to consider how people are alerted to the need to evacuate. Strobe lights will inform deaf and hard of hearing people if they are positioned correctly in areas where they are likely to be alone, such as bedrooms. Depending on the alarm system in place, it may be a relatively simple solution of replacing sounder units with an integrated strobe and sounder unit without needing to rewire a building. A suitably qualified fire engineer will be able to advise.
Staff training for fire wardens should include an introduction to key signs and gestures for people who communicate non- verbally. These should include: ‘fire’, ‘please evacuate’ and ‘come with me’, for example. Partially sighted or blind people may require guidance to an evacuation route particularly if it is an unfamiliar route.
When considering people with mobility issues, bear in mind that wheelchair users feel their chair is an integral part of their freedom. If they need to move to an evacuation chair to navigate down the stairs, it’s important to reunite with their wheelchair as soon as possible. People can be nervous
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Direct Access Director Steven Mifsud
about evacuation chairs as they are oſten operated by people who may not be familiar with the individual. Going down a flight of stairs can be scary. It is therefore essential that when evacuation chair training is delivered, this includes understanding how to provide reassurance for both the evacuee and operator. Ask people for permission before taking the chair – in effect communicate the process.
Neurodiverse people may find alarms and the sudden disruption to a planned day to be unsettling. This was one of the reasons behind the design of the Direct Access Evacuation Chair range with an orange and black colour scheme that reflects the life jackets seen on boats.
A final point is that refuge areas should include two-way communication that has lights to indicate someone is answering the call – this provides reassurance not just that the system is working, for deaf and hard of hearing people who may not hear voices coming from the unit.
https://directaccessgp.co.uk www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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