Petition for evacuation chair in all schools

[Topsyturvy78]

16 year old Luke with CP had a fire alarm go off at his school. He could smell smoke everyone else in his class was evacuated he was left alone to be evacuated by firefighters as no evacuation chair. So he’s set up a petition to have evacuation chairs in all schools.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/706513?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLB9B1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHlFnwMhBJI6BRLETFEzy_5sZSqigeCiBUP89PYHBt9x983dYPDY3_VJNWq1P_aem_GnHQzMVTY_4nJk59pcJIFw

A horrible situation for Luke but surely this only applies to schools with more than one story? Many, many schools are single level.

All the secondary schools where I live have upper floors as well. Some primary schools and the infant and secondary school I went to did. We had a few SEN pupils but no wheelchair users. I know a girl with CP who went through something similar. It was decided she would go to the mainstream school for lessons on the ground floor. But for upstairs lessons she had to go to a nearby SEN school. Purpose built special schools are usually all ground floor. But not every child with a physical disability has learning disabilities as well.

I just think you might have better chance of a positive outcome if the requirement is for all schools with stairs to have one. I've never worked in a maimstream primary school - and I've worked in quite a number - with stairs.

Surely it should be part of the plan for kids who need one, in schools where it’s necessary. Not a blanket cost for all schools.

Well, obviously. It’s ok to campaign though…

I am amazed this was not part of his personal fire safety plan. All students with physical disabilities in schools have to have one to ensure they can leave the building safely, or be sheltered with an adult in a safe area if evacuation is not possible.

My office had one for a while but was removed. No one in the office currently needs one but we do have clients might.

There needs to be a fire marshal who is properly trained and willing to use it and then to the person.l An office is relatively straightforward compared to a school layout

In our office the role is voluntary and I think they were worried about the responsibility. Risk of injury, particularly in practices.

In my current I don’t need this but there was another where I might have needed it. I don’t think I could impose that responsibility on someone else unwilling.

Any with an ounce of empathy would not run out of a burning building and leave a child who can’t walk on their own.

Signed. Its seems blindingly obvious to me that if mainstream schools are to enable wheelchair using pupils to attend, then they have a duty of care to ensure they can be evacuated in a timely manner.

Absolutely an adult should have remained. It’s great if they have chair. I think one problem may be whether they can require enough staff as fire marshals trained to use it. I don’t know enough law to know if that is a reasonable adjustment.

Im sorry if I sound callous but having a chair is no good unless I’m confident someone will use it.

We have a wheelchair user in our school. Their fire safety plan states that, should the fire alarm go off, they should go to the nearest stairwell (they have a 1-1) and the staff should make radio contact with the fire marshal and then the staff should exit the building leaving them there alone, just like this poor lad in the news. There have been several occasions when the fire alarm has gone off and staff have stayed with the student. This has resulted in a massive bollocking from the fire marshal. We do actually have an evac chair but the school have only funded training for a few staff, some of whom have since left and some of whom are part time. Moreover, the student's plan states that they should only ever be put in the evac chair when expressly instructed to do so by the fire marshal (safety and dignity considerations as the evac chair is not the most comfy. During practice fire drills the student just has to stay in the building listening to the alarm going off)

It looked like the school in the news had a fire safety plan whereby the firefighters would go in and get the lad out asap, but that's obviously not a lot of comfort when you're trapped alone in a building that smells of smoke. Poor lad.

Two or three adults can get a person in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs in an emergency. Unless the stairs were actually on fire I don't understand how anyone could with an ounce of humanity could leave them.

This boys was in a huge heavy power chair, not just your everyday wheel chair. There is no way they could evac him in his wheelchair.
He was also pretty much the size of an adult man, but has CP so issues with muscle tone and posture making it difficult to move him. He couldn't simply be carried for example, like you might do with a younger child.

It would be more sensible to campaign to make it the fire brigades responsibilty again to rescue people from protected stairwells instead of expecting building occupiers to do it.

I am evac chair trained. The advice is only use it if you HAVE to to get the person out of a situation where there is likely to be risk to life before the fire fighters arrive. Also the advice is, if you are confident that waiting for firefighters is ok, only the disabled person waits. If anything does go wrong, the fire comes from somewhere you don't expect or whatever, there is a possibility that even able-bodied people will need rescue. If extra people have stayed then there is greater risk of injury or death to both them and the firefighters who have to save them.

I worked in a college which had Evac Chairs so have some knowledge.

The user has to be able to self-transfer from their wheelchair into the Evac Chair, so they cannot be used by every wheelchair user.

The operator has to be trained in how to use them. It’s not intuitive.

They’re heavy with someone sitting in them. Not everyone will be able to operate them.

They’re definitely a useful contribution to emergency evacuations but they’re not the only answer. Our preferred strategy was to timetable wheelchair users in ground floor rooms.

Presumably he has a PEEP

There will be at least one designated refuge point protected by fire doors which will withstand for a length of time

I understand that it will be scary, but this isn't necessarily the answer

(I am both a fire warden and evac chair trained)

We had an evacuation chair in school, it hung on the wall - we were never taught to use it. Not once in 10 years. Not even by the first aid trainers.

This. Firedoors are meant to give enough time for the fire service to get there and do a safe rescue. It wasn't something I was comfortable with when I first heard it - and I was a trained lifeguard who had been told many times that you should not put yourself in danger. Better one life dead than two.

Having said that, if flames were literally licking at the door, I think I'd want to try something rather than nothing. I have had evacuation chair training. There are some men at work I wouldn't want to try, they are big.

They may not be trained themselves. I think we were trained by the chair supplier, not first aid supplier.