As a property owner or building facility manager, investing in high quality evacuation equipment should be a top priority to ensure the safety of all occupants, residents, employees or visitors to your building should there be an emergency situation. Investing in quality evacuation equipment not only helps saves lives, but will also help you save on costs and time spent on replacing poor quality, malfunctioning equipment.
The implications of poor-quality evacuation equipment bear a heavy price on property owners and managers prior to, and during emergencies. They will find themselves having to frequently replace equipment as poor-quality evacuation equipment easily breaks off, malfunctions and is not durable, making it very risky to have this poor quality equipment in your buildings, even more so during an emergency situation as this will put lives at risk.
The ability to create safer working and living environments has also evolved over the years, allowing facilities managers to be more proactive in preparing for emergency situations. A building with adequate safety protocols, processes and equipment adds value to your property and shows that you care about safety is a priority in your building, increasing trust between you and your building occupants and visitors.
Even after investing in quality equipment, it is important that building managers and property owners keep their equipment serviced and well maintained, and also ensure that training has been provided on how to use the equipment. Having regular maintenance will ensure that your safety equipment is always in good working order. Inadequate maintenance and training can lead to equipment malfunctioning, or not being effectively used when it is needed the most (in an emergency), leading to injuries or fatalities. Having your Evac+Chair serviced regularly, will not only ensure you meet your legal requirement, it will also prolong the lifetime of your asset.
Building owners should also avoid purchasing counterfeit evacuation equipment. They may seem more cost-effectively priced, but will cost you more in the long run.
“Counterfeit products should not even be considered an option when it comes to emergency evacuation equipment, no matter how cost effective they may seem because you could endanger lives. Investing in good quality evacuation equipment, assures you and your building occupants or employees increased safety and quicker evacuations should you have an emergency situation, ensuring that you leave no one behind,” said Gavin Glass, CEO and Owner of Evac+Chair – South Africa.
The Evac+Chair evacuation chair is designed to carry mobility impaired people up and down stairs in multi-storey buildings during emergency evacuations when the lifts are not working or available for use because in the event of an emergency such as a fire or an earthquake, passenger lifts cannot be used. This can create an issue for the mobility impaired or injured people who could become trapped. If a person’s capability to evacuate is impaired by a medical condition like heightened anxiety or having to exert themselves by using stairs in a bit of a hurry, then assistance might need to be provided.
One of the fundamental reasons why the Evac+Chair has been so successful worldwide, is its superior product quality. Evac+Chair is classified as a class I medical device in both the US, where it is approved by the FDA, and Europe, where it conforms to the provisions of the Medical Devices Regulations EU 2017/745, which means it also carries the CE mark.
The Evac+Chair has also been type-tested through TUV NORD International Gmbh, an independent test-house facility based in Germany, and is manufactured in accordance with ISO 9001 and 13485 Quality Management standards.
The Evac+Chair was also identified as the ‘fastest device’ for evacuating patients from hospitals in an independent clinical study completed by Greenwich University in 2013 – An analysis and numerical simulation of the performance of trained hospital staff using movement assist devices to evacuate people with reduced mobility.
The Evac+Chair evacuation chair is the perfect solution; it is a lightweight and easy to use device which glides effortlessly down stairways to assist with the quick and safe removal of people who are mobility impaired in the event of an emergency evacuation. The Evac+Chair is also portable so no installation or modification of stairways is required.