Getting everyone out who cannot use the stairs

Every building has people who cannot get downstairs quickly. In a school, it may be a pupil with a broken leg, a teacher with a heart condition or a visitor in a wheelchair. In a care home, it may be most of the residents. Planning for them is not a separate topic from fire safety. It is the heart of it.

The first question is who. You cannot plan for people you have not counted. In a school, ask the office to tell the staff when a pupil’s needs change. In a care home, review each resident’s mobility whenever their condition does, and not only at a set interval.

The second question is how each person leaves. A personal emergency evacuation plan, usually called a PEEP, answers it for one person. It says how they will be warned, who will help, what route they will take and what equipment is used. It is short and written in plain words. It should be read by the people who would carry it out, not only filed.

The third question is where people wait. A landing, a protected lobby or a space beside a stair can hold a person safely for a while, if it is clear and if the doors around it close. These spaces often get used for storage. A wheelchair that cannot be moved from a landing is a problem for the next person who needs it.

The fourth question is how help arrives. Whoever is waiting must be known to the person in charge at the assembly point, so that someone goes back for them, or tells those who can. A plan that ends at “wait on the landing” has stopped halfway.

Then there is the practice. Plans that have never been rehearsed fail on the day, usually through small things: a door that sticks, a staff member who is off sick, a lift that cannot be used. Try the plan with the people involved, and ask them what felt wrong. Practise at different times, because a Monday morning and a Friday night shift are not the same building.

Keep the plans where staff can find them in a hurry, and keep them up to date. Review each one when the person’s needs change, when the layout changes and when the staff change. A plan written two years ago for a resident who has since moved rooms is worse than none, because it feels like a plan.

If you are unsure, an assessor can walk the building with you and look at the routes with these people in mind. Many problems turn out to be small. A door that is hard to open, a stair rail that stops too early, a space too narrow for a chair to turn.

Start by making the list of who needs help. The rest follows from it.