(no subject)

[alexseanchai]

Doing a FEMA course on workplace safety procedures. This bit's on evacuation. "Do NOT use elevators unless instructed to do so by emergency personnel." Uh, what do people in wheelchairs do?

Comments

[liv]

There should be a place of refuge for wheelchair users which is fireproof for a legally specified minimum number of hours, and they should be listed somewhere as unable to evacuate the building in the event of a fire, so that the firefighters will know to go and look for them in the refuge. This is completely horrifying; my brother has nightmares about being trapped in a thoroughly sealed room in the event of a fire, hoping to get rescued but having no way of communicating with anyone who can tell him whether rescue is coming. But it's just about the only universally feasible solution if your only wheelchair access to upper floors is via lifts. Some places have a system where there are slings set up in or near fire escape stairs, so that a wheelchair user who can't mobilize on foot can be carried down the stairs by trained fire marshals. I think that's basically only viable for buildings of a couple of stories, it wouldn't really work for high rise.

In any case this information rly rly should be part of the safety briefing!

[alexseanchai]

Yeah, one would think it should, but.

[seekergeek]

What she said. When I was the fire safety marshal for my floor at a job I had, one of my responsibilities was to round up those who couldn't navigate the stairs, collect them in one room and inform the firefighters of who was still in the building and where they were stationed.