In the event of an emergency, there is no time to regret not being prepared to keep all of your guests, employees, and everyone else in your building safe. When the fire alarms begin to sound, stairwells will be flooded with people with one similar goal in mind: safety. However, not everyone can escape on their own; for that reason, the responsibility is on you to invest in evacuation chairs.
Evacuation chairs, or EMS chairs, assist the handicapped in descending stairs to get to safety. Life Safety Code (NFPA 101) requires that nearly all facilities, including workplaces and hospitals, have an emergency evacuation plan in place and test it regularly. This standard isn’t in place for no reason; between the years of 2011 and 2015, there were almost 6,000 fires in healthcare facilities annually. With hundreds of thousands of disabled persons using all sorts of facilities in each state, there’s no reason for a building not to have evacuation chairs at the ready.
Leading manufacturers of the escape chairs even guarantee lifetime chair quality and price matching against their competitors. As a business owner or operator, you can’t afford to not make the investment, and can rest assured that storing the evacuation wheelchair will not interrupt your operations; many models of the chair are wall-mounted and can discreetly fold away until it’s needed.
The evacuation chairs can be operated without heavy lifting or power, so you or any other passerby can help the individual get to safety. Since a single person can maneuver the slender chairs, there’s plenty of room on the other side of the stairwell for people to descend next to them.
Most chair models are lightweight and easy to operate. Make sure to store the chair or mount it on a wall nearby to your evacuation stairs, and clearly mark or label the location of the chair so it can be accessed quickly by a frantic and hurried individual.
Even if you think you serve a clientele that won’t need evacuation chairs during an emergency, some people in your building may not have visible disabilities, but will still need assistance if disaster strikes your business. Victims with respiratory issues such as asthma, or heart conditions, may find themselves incapacitated in the event of a fire. A business owner who neglects a disabled person during an evacuation is committing a moral and legal fault. Don’t risk your business, livelihood, and customers’ wellbeing; make the investment that could mean life or death for someone under your roof in an emergency.