A fundamental objective of fire engineering design for egress is that there shall be alternative, safe and intuitive means of egress from the scene of a fire; these routes shall be available to all building users.
NOTE — Manual handling of wheelchairs occupied by their users in a fire evacuation staircase, even with adequate training for everyone directly and indirectly involved, is hazardous for the person in the wheelchair and for those people giving assistance. The weight of an average unoccupied powered wheelchair, alone, makes manual handling impractical. Evacuation chair devices can allow vertical movement on stairs of people with mobility impairments. Some evacuation chairs require a wheelchair user to transfer out of their own chair into the evacuation chair. This transfer operation requires manual handling (for example handling of one work colleague by others), and there is a risk of injury during the transfer process or if the wheelchair user uses an oxygen tube, or has a catheter or a colostomy bag. The transfer can also infringe the independence and dignity of the individual concerned.
Evacuation of occupants through assisted evacuation by use of fireman's lift should be planned while evacuation through designated lifts suitably planned and installed for use of occupants for safe evacuation are desirous to be provided.
Such lifts used for evacuation should be easily accessible, clearly identifiable and be suitably protected from the increase of smoke, heat and flame. The controls for the lift shall be located in the areas where users must wait and this area shall be designed to ensure a tenable environment provided during the entire time that the evacuation is taking place.
Such lifts should not be used for evacuation unless built for this purpose and suitably protected by the building design.
The fire evacuation shall comply with the requirements given in Part 4 ‘Fire and Life Safety’ of the Code and lifts for evacuation including fireman’s lift shall comply with the requirements given in Part 8 ‘Building Services, Section 5 Lifts, Escalators and Moving Walks: 5A Lifts’ of the Code.