Building fires are particularly dangerous because they can quickly get out of control. It could take several minutes for the smoke to start filling the hallway and for the flames to spread from floor to floor before emergency personnel could help.

Preparations must be made for a quick and effective fire evacuation — something building management and residents can work towards.

With the help of the Emergency Stair Evacuation Chair, your building will be ready to help each occupant evacuate. Everyone has a chance to ride out an emergency safely.

Start these preparations by understanding the biggest considerations for fire evacuation.

Keep exits clear

The evacuation stairwell and the front room are the safe passage for evacuation, and also the main path for firefighters to enter the building for fire fighting and rescue.

For safe evacuation, all emergency exits should be well away from any obstacles. Residents should be able to easily find these exit doors, open them and walk through them without difficulty. Cars should not stop in front of them and furniture should not lean against them.

Take the stairs

In the event of a fire, you should not use the elevator to evacuate the building. The elevator may lose power before it can transport you to the required floor, trapping you inside, or it may transport you to a floor engulfed by fire or smoke.

This is a problem for residents who cannot evacuate safely and in time through stairwells. The elderly, pregnant women, the disabled and seriously injured are just some examples of residents unable to use this escape route alone.

The best solution to this particular problem, while keeping the stairwells clear, is the Emergency Stair Evacuation Chair. The chair can help residents who can’t take the stairs on their own evacuate buildings safely.

How does the Emergency Stair Evacuation Chair work?

People who can’t make it up the stairs quickly sit in evacuation chairs and secure themselves with seat belts (helpers can do the same for them). The assistant can then guide the resident in the chair down the stairs and out of the building.

Smoke alarm

Smoke alarms go off at inconvenient times. It could be the middle of the night when you’re in bed, or it could be the middle of the day when you’re working hard. At these inconvenient times, you might want to ignore the alerts and go ahead with what you planned to do. Ignoring this warning may put your health and safety at risk. Once the smoke alarm goes off, you need to evacuate the scene quickly and calmly.

Walking down stairs

You may experience smoke during evacuation. If you can avoid the smoke through another exit, you should do so. If you can’t take an alternate route, you should try to stay on the ground. The heat from the fire forces the smoke up, so the lower you go, the safer the air is.

Don’t go back inside

You may want to turn around during the evacuation to pick up items of strong personal or financial value. This is not a good idea. Even if you are close to the flames, you can easily come into contact with other hazards nearby. You may breathe in too much smoke. Fires can damage the structural integrity of buildings, causing columns to collapse, ceilings to collapse or floors to become unstable. You may encounter items that emit dangerous smoke or burn when exposed to flames or extreme heat.

One of the simplest techniques for planning an emergency is to acquire specialized equipment. These are the special equipment you need for fire evacuation:

Functional smoke alarms. These should be installed in units and corridors on every floor of the building. They should test once a month to make sure they are ready to sound alerts and warn residents about potential threats.

1. Fire extinguishers. Fire laws require that fire extinguishers be placed in hallways of multi-unit residential and commercial buildings.

2. Sprinkler system. Sprinkler systems can slow the spread of fires and reduce damage to buildings.

3. Evacuation chairs. Buildings should install evacuation chairs near stairwells leading to emergency exits. They should be easily accessible so that someone can grab the chair and guide residents to safety in an emergency. Click here for more information on evacuation chair pricing and model design.

It is important to prepare for a fire evacuation. You want everyone to be ready to evacuate in the event of a disaster.