Our guide to evacuation chairs
Why do I need an Evacuation Chair?
For a multitude of reasons. For example, legislation highlights the responsibility of evacuation lies with the occupants of the building to be able to evacuate safely. If you have anybody on your premises with mobility impairment or have made your property accessible to those with mobility impairment, you are required to review evacuating those people safely in the event of an emergency.
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Contact Safety Chair Click here and we will organise a suitable time and date to visit you and complete a free site assessment.
As part of our ‘Safety Assessment Process’ we look to include the individuals involved in any PEEP or GEEP so you can see the equipment doing what it does best.
It is a legal requirement for a business and its building to provide adequate evacuation procedures for both mobility impaired and abled bodied occupants/staff/visitors in an emergency.
What is an evacuation chair?
An evacuation chair helps support the safe evacuation of an individual to a point of ultimate safety. At its core an evacuation chair should help negotiate stairs in an emergency evacuation. It should require minimal personnel to operate. Our Safety Chairs are easy to use and require minimum effort.
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Our EV-4000 model carries up to 200kg. However, if you require the ability to support a larger weight our EV-7000 chair carries up to 230 kg
The Safety Chair is designed with situations like this in mind. Our EV8000 will even control descent and ascent with its Power Track System.
Evacuation mats are seen as a valid alternative. However, they require a lot more human resource to move a person and trigger many manual handling requirements and subsequent training.
Is it difficult to use?
Not with the right training. It is vital to have competent people capable of using an evacuation chair. Having an evacuation chair is not a tick box exercise, it can prove an essential part of any evacuation plan that needs to negotiate stairs on route to a point of ultimate safety. Depending on the number of people who require training, you may want to consider a train the trainer course so you can certify others.
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Don’t worry. It is understandable that people are hesitant to use evacuation equipment. Our ‘Operator Training’ and ‘Train the Trainer’ courses get people familiar with using the chair without putting you at risk.
Our entire range of evacuation chairs come with user guides and all of our chairs have attached pictograms on how to deploy the chair. However, we strongly advise you consider formal training in the near future.
Confidence is key with this situation. The visual difference between two people can cause you to think you are potentially not capable. The Safety Chair is designed to support 200kg minimising the physical effort needed. Our site assessment ‘Safety Audit’ will identify training needs on how to use your chair in the most effective manner. This helps us develop the right training course to meet your needs.
Where should it be located?
An evacuation chair should be located in a pace of relative safety such as a fire protected stair well. This enables you to deploy an evacuation chair safely and enable safe transfer of the person to the evacuation chair. Space is always a premium so you should not prevent safe evacuation by blocking stair wells or causing a fire door to remain open.
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Most landlords understand the need for this equipment, and it is super easy to install, with two wall hooks being able to support the weight of the chair. If you feel this is a potential sticking point we would recommend our free standing ‘safety mount’ which enables you to safely locate chair without having to commit to any works on the building itself.
We would urge you to consider covering both exits, however, a risk assessment or PEEP/GEEP should encompass this and the reasoning for its location. This way it enables you to test its validity and whether any revisions need to be considered.
An understandable consideration. By placing a chair in a fire protected stair well you will afford yourself the time to deploy your chair and complete any transfers to the Safety Chair. At this point most if not all your existing population should have evacuated giving you safe passage to use your Safety Chair and reach a point of ultimate safety.
What chair is right for my situation?
Identify your evacuation routes in the first instance. Do the routes have any particular features that may limit your ability evacuate using a chair in a timely manner. If you know anybody at your location that will definitely require assistance in the event of an evacuation you will need to formulate a PEEP (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan). This will help to ensure your plan is both robust and effective whilst taking into consideration the individual and the building surrounding you. Site assessments and demonstrations are a simple way of understanding the feasibility of the equipment you are looking to potentially use.
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Safety Chair are committed to 100% satisfaction with all of our customers. Site surveys and demonstrations are a positive way of seeing how the equipment works in your stairwell. Book one with us … its free!
With this situation its always important to include any individual you think may needs a Safety Chair. Our team are more than happy to demonstrate on site with the individual involved. It also helps breed confidence for the passenger and operator alike.
It is very rare that we will not be able to support the correct solution for you. The Safety Chair range caters for single/dual person operated chairs. Our EV8000 mechanised chair that makes it even easier to descend or ascend a stair well.