Setting up evacuation plans and incorporating the right strategies to suit your building premises is vital to preparing for a fire emergency.
Picture yourself at a conference, team meeting, or exhibition. There are specific reasons attention is directed beforehand to the fire exits, which is that beyond meeting legal obligations, a detailed plan is crucial to keeping people safe. Furthermore, your premises must also have a plan of action for the safe evacuation of people with disabilities – which can prove extremely challenging depending on the nature of the evacuees’ disability.
Direct Access has a breadth of knowledge when it comes to two things; accessibility, and creating safe built environments. Our team’s lived experience with disability has long informed our approach to access audits and consultancy services, and this has led us to the inevitable; releasing our own Evacuation Solutions Range, built for universal purpose, but with a specific focus on the needs of people with disabilities. In addition, our team can create detailed site surveys ensuring the correct emergency evacuation solution is specified for your premises. Taking into account the building layout, existing emergency procedure, and where appropriate, the mobility needs of the intended users of our chairs, with a detailed post-survey report highlighting areas of attention.
Our team has extensive experience in creating professional evacuation plans, meeting all legislative requirements, and for a range of architecture. This includes restaurants, schools, office blocks, leisure centers, government buildings, hotels, retail parks, residential buildings, and care homes. In addition to this, we offer staff training to ensure the comprehensive implementation of all evacuation solutions and fire evacuation plans, as well as how to prepare for an emergency situation in which people with disabilities are at risk. Including those with mobility, sensory, cognitive impairments, and temporary illness/injuries that would cause them to need assistance during a fire emergency.
As part of our commitments to the community we serve, Direct Access employs a network of disabled field-based service engineers all around the U.S, offering high-quality service maintenance to ensure that chairs are ready for use and reuse and are never left to gather dust on a stairwell.
If you need support developing a fire evacuation plan, or you have any other concerns about accessibility at your premises, feel free to get in touch with a member of our award-winning accessibility team. We’re here to help because, for us, accessibility is personal.