Safety gets front seat with evac chairs

Evacusafe chairs allow one person to evacuate another, down stairs.

Evacuation chair offers easy-to-operate way to aid access in the event of any emergency situation.

Dubai’s Rose Rayhaan Hotel has recently installed Evacusafe evacuation chairs, to aid the safety of guests in the event of any emergency.

Evacusafe chairs allow one person to evacuate another person, who may not be mobile enough to evacuate themselves, safely down a flight of stairs.

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“The chair is for anyone who needs help, whether they cannot move their lower limbs, are frail, or are just somebody who cannot get themselves down the stairs,” says David Hoolickan, operations manager for Evacusafe Dubai.

“I know that in an emergency people do not think straight. With this chair, [when moving between stairs and landing] you will always be on four wheels. When you reach the bottom of the stairs you can just tip it back up and you are on the way.”

The leverage the chair provides through its tipping motion makes it easy for anyone to take any other person, regardless of size, down the stairs. An important part of the installation process is a site assessment.

“We go along and have a look,” says Hoolickan. “As there is no point getting the chairs if the escape route is not suitable, I have got to make sure the chair is effective over the available surface.”

In the case of the Rose Reyhaan installation, Evacusafe also provided staff training, whereby the facility’s fire wardens were taught how to use the chair and what to watch out for when others are using it.

“What you find is that the more they use the chair the better they become acquainted with it,” says Hoolickan.