We had a false alarm go off in the building where I work last week. The elevators automatically shut down forcing the use of the fire escapes. The building is 22 floors. I was lucky in that I’d just taken the elevator to the first floor to step outside on a break. When they finally let us back in, I wondered what someone with mobility issues is expected to do had the building been on fire. Just die? Have a kind soul carry them? With most people wfh at least a couple of days per week, this seems really dangerous for anyone who might get stranded.
What a depressing thread. Fuck people who can’t walk I guess.
There’s not exactly a whole lot of options…
They shelter in designated spaces built to withstand fire longer, typically stairwells, and fire departments rescue them.
I know but if there was enough caring, a solution could be made.
Such as?
I just said I don’t know. I’m not an engineer or an architect.
Evacuation chairs that can be used by one trained able person. You just need to have a plan in place to make sure the chairs and trained personnel are actually available where needed.
One solution my friend and I came up with is a cardboard box, lay on it, drag them down the stairs. You drag them head first, on their back, and laying straight. It’s painful, but they’ll live. The idea is to sort of glide down the steps. We tried it out and it worked, but it hurt.
Why head first though?
I was wondering the same. Best guess I could come up with was that it meant the people assisting the person on the cardboard would be able to hold them by the feet and, standing on the higher steps, gradually slide them down in a controlled manner. Just a guess though.
It was more to do with shoulders having a more gradual curve than heels and cheeks. We didn’t try it with a box, but speculate that the box would make this less of an issue. The box idea came from sliding down the stairs as a kid
Depends on how much cake you have I guess. Our cheeks and heels kept catching steps and there wasn’t enough rigidity. Going head first seemed to glide down the stair more easily.
We didn’t try with a box though, so maybe adding the box would enable feet first
Oh that’s a very good point.
We required (pretty sure it was fire code) designated people to carry immobile people down the stairs.
Is it like security or just random employees? I wonder if they require people to stay in shape, otherwise they might find themselves unable in an emergency.
just a random employee. We could volunteer. And we had drills all the time.