EVAC chair supply, servicing and training

If somebody cannot use the stairs, what is your plan?

Lifts are not an escape route. An evacuation chair, kept where it is needed and used by people who have practised with it, is how a wheelchair user, an injured colleague or a visitor with a broken ankle gets out of an upper floor.

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Session lengthHalf a day, at your premises

Group sizeUp to 8 operators

Sits underYour PEEPs and fire risk assessment

We also doSupply, install and annual service

Why this sits on your fire risk assessment

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 the responsible person has to make sure everyone can leave the premises safely — not just the people who can walk down stairs. The Equality Act 2010 sits alongside it. In practice that means a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan for anyone who would need help, and a general plan for visitors you have not met yet.

A chair on a bracket does not satisfy that on its own. The plan has to name who will operate it, and those people have to have used it before. That is what the training session is for.

What the session covers

How your specific chair works — release, unfold, brake, track and belts
Transferring somebody from a wheelchair or the floor into the chair, safely and with dignity
Descending a staircase under control, and what to do on a landing or a turn
Working as a pair, and what to do when only one operator is available
Communicating with the person being evacuated — talking them through it, not just moving them
Refuge points, where they are in your building and how long is reasonable to wait
Handover to the fire service on arrival
Storage, pre-use checks and reporting a fault
Practical descents on your own staircases, so nobody is learning the geometry on the day it matters

Supply and installation

If you do not have chairs yet, we will walk the building with you and work out how many you need and where they go — normally at the head of each protected stairway, in a wall bracket with signage, somewhere that will not get boxed in by furniture. We supply, fit and sign them, then train your people on the units you have actually bought.

Annual servicing

Evacuation chairs are life safety equipment and manufacturers expect an annual inspection. Tracks wear, belts fray, brakes drift out of adjustment, and a chair that has sat untouched for four years is not a chair you want to find out about mid-evacuation. We service them and leave you a certificate for your records.

How a session runs

Practical from the start. Nobody leaves having only watched.

Walk the building

We look at your stairways, refuge points and where the chairs live before we start.

The equipment

Your chair, taken apart and explained. Checks, faults and what good condition looks like.

Practise

Transfers and controlled descents on your own staircases, everybody taking a turn as operator.

Paperwork

Certificates for each operator and a register for your fire safety file.

Getting it right

The things that decide whether a plan works on the day.

Train more than one person

If your only trained operator is on annual leave, you have no plan. We would rather train four or five people per floor than two.

Keep the route clear

A chair behind a stack of boxes is no use. Storage location goes on the fire risk assessment for a reason.

Involve the person

Where you can, write the PEEP with the individual, not about them. They will know what works for them better than anyone.

Put it in the drill

Include an assisted evacuation in at least one drill a year, even if it is only to the refuge point.

Questions we get asked

Straight answers before you book anything.

Can we just use the lift?

No. Ordinary passenger lifts must not be used in a fire — they can lose power or open onto the fire floor. Only a purpose-designed evacuation lift can be used, and most buildings do not have one.

Is the fire service not responsible for this?

No. The duty to evacuate the building sits with the responsible person. The fire service will assist when they arrive, but your plan has to work before that.

We are single storey — do we need one?

Usually not for stairs, but you may still need a plan for anyone who cannot self-evacuate quickly. We will tell you honestly if you do not need a chair.

Can you train us on chairs we already own?

Yes. We will check their condition first and tell you if anything needs servicing or replacing before we train on it.