Means of Escape for Disabled and Vulnerable Persons Means of escape must also be carefully considered for other groups of people who may be present. This could be 'Vulnerable people'. Vulnerable people can fall into several categories, they may be elderly, children or disabled (mentally or physically) and have mobility problems. Therefore, special attention and arrangements must be in place, as this group of people will become extremely vulnerable should an evacuation be required. National or international legislation or standards will dictate specific requirements. For example, in the UK British Standards (BS) BS 9999:2017 Code of practice for fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings provides recommendations and guidance on the design, management and use of buildings to achieve acceptable levels of fire safety for people in and around buildings. Dependent upon the needs of the person with disabilities or the type and severity of the disability, various methods can be used to assist the means of escape. With evacuation lifts the general rules are that the lift should be located in a well-protected enclosure. It should have a switch enabling a supervisor to override the landing call buttons and take the lift to floors from which disabled people need to be evacuated. BS 9999 Suggests that there are two types of lift that can be used for escape: " Unlike a normal passenger lift it is essential that any evacuation lift can continue to operate safely when there is a fire in the building. Although it is not necessary to provide a lift for the escape of people with disabilities, a firefighting lift (which is provided principally for the use of the fire service in fighting fires) may be used for the evacuation of people with disabilities prior to the arrival of the fire service, who will then assume responsibility of any remaining persons ." The document says that if you have an evacuation lift then it should always be used. In order to facilitate this: • Liaison with the fire service is necessary. • Operation of the lift should be controlled by the management of the building. • In workplaces staff should be trained. • The lift car should only be taken to appropriate levels. • Only people with disabilities should use it. • Senior staff should be designated to assist in the process. • Anyone planning to use a firefighting lift for evacuation purposes should inform their local fire service. Refuge (taken from BS9999) A refuge is defined as “an area that is enclosed with fire-resisting construction (other than any part which is an external wall of a building) and served directly by a safe route to a storey exit, evacuation lift or final exit, thus constituting a temporary safe space for people with disabilities to await assistance for their evacuation". There is a note with this clause which states: "Refuges are relatively safe waiting areas for short periods. They are not areas where people with disabilities should be left indefinitely until rescued by the fire brigade, or until the fire is extinguished. (This should not be confused with the use of refuges in progressive horizontal evacuation, e.g., in hospitals)".
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