Wait what's a buildings fire evacuation plan if you aren't supposed to use the elevator to get down
You go down the stairwell/fire escape. Is that weird?
But what if you have a walker or a wheelchair??
in america at least, in this situation, there isnt one. either your loved ones or the firemen can get you out using the emergency fire escapes or stairs, or you dieĀ
That's fucking horrific, thank you
āfunā little story:
last summer my friend who is an amazingly talented artist and i were in this super tall building, and sheās in a wheelchair and iām pushing her around the room. itās an art exhibit and some of her art was chosen to be showcased there and so itās all fine and dandy until suddenly an alarm starts going off
a FIRE ALARM
everyone starts running for the stairs and my friend just looks at me with this forlorn look on her face
āi canāt go down the stairsā
but iām a stubborn bitchĀ āiāll carry youā
āwhat about my chair? itās too expensive for me to be able to get another one if i canāt get this one backā
āiāll carry that tooā
and i did. we went to the stairs (by then most people from our floor were gone) and i lifted her up in a firemanās carry over my shoulder and then lifted her chair up and used the ridiculous amount of adrenaline that was coursing through my veins to make it down approximately 20 half-flights of stairs until we met some people exiting lower floors, one of which who kindly took the chair. I changed positions so i was holding my friend bridal-style which was, somehow, easier and the person who took her wheelchair (with her permission to handle it of course) accompanied me to the ground floor and then out the doors
basically there is no real protocol for people who canāt use the stairs in an emergency. itās up to the people with them, if anyone, to help them or the person to somehow make it down the stairs alone, unassisted
thank fuck that it was just a faulty alarm system, because if i was unable to carry her down those stairs and the building was on fucking fire???? then i donāt know what would have happened to her, but i donāt think it would have been very good.
itās fucking ridiculous and ableist to the absolute max.
I use a cane. When I did a day-long fire safety training at my northeast American university (UMass Amherst), I asked that exact same question: āwhat am I supposed to do if the fire alarm goes off and Iām in my lab on the twelfth floor?āĀ
the fire marshal hemmed and hawed for a while and then said to take the elevator- youāre supposed to leave it free for the fire department to use and they want able-bodied people out fast not waiting for elevators. if the fire alarm has just gone off the building probably hasnāt suffered enough structural damage to make using the elevator dangerous, and modern elevator wells are heavily reinforced. many large and high-trafficked buildings on my campus have fire rated elevators that link in with the fire alarm system so they wonāt let you off on a floor with a possible fire.Ā
if the elevator isnāt working, wait in the stairwell and call the fire department to let them know where you are. modern stairwells are also heavily reinforced- it might not be pleasant but modern building code usually requires fire-resistant stairwell doors in office and big residential buildings, also to help firefighters get in and out safely. older buildingsā stairwells may or may not be retrofitted with fire-resistant doors but a stairwell is generally the safest place to wait if you canāt get out.Ā
what happened to your friend was horrible, and iām very glad you were there to help her out, but you can absolutely use the elevator to evacuate if itās not shut down. those donāt-use-the-elevator rules are for abled people.Ā Ā
This is GOOD TO KNOW. why do they not tell people this??
I used to work in a hospital in Germany where we received regular fire safety training. Thereās these evacuation chairs you can use to carry people down the stairs:Ā
Now, even in that huge hospital Iāve only seen like two of them around - in office buildings, not where the actual patients are (then again, thereās fire-proof safety walls that close off hallways as soon as the fire alarm goes off, and tons of regulations I havenāt been involved in since I worked in the office or the old building that didnāt have a fire escape).Ā
