Evacuation Chairs Australia

On Wednesday, March 31st a fire alarm went off, causing an immediate evacuation of Parkland. For most part the evacuation process is simple: you just walk outside of the building and you're safe. However, for those who have disabilities that prevent them from doing so, the situation can become a bit more complicated.

This was the case for Brock Bush, a sophomore at Parkland majoring in computer networking, who has cerebral palsy. According to cerebralpalsy.org, cerebral palsy is a broad term used to describe a group of chronic movement disorders that can lead to a lack of muscle control. Bush has to use a wheelchair to get around, so in order to get to the different levels of Parkland, he has to use an elevator. In the event of a fire however, elevators can't be used, so that makes it a lot harder for people with disabilities to get out of the building.

Because of this problem, Parkland used an evacuation chair to aid students down the stairs for the first time. An evacuation chair allows people with disabilities to safely go down a flight of stairs in the event of an emergency, and it also prevents any potential injury for those who are helping in the process. It works by strapping the person being helped into the chair and then officials can safely move them down the stairs.

Matthew Kopmann, Parkland's College Relations Officer, was on the scene at the time of the incident and helped with getting Bush down from the second floor of the B wing.

"We've done in service training with the chair before," said Koppeman. "We trained with other officers, putting the officers in the chair and doing test runs, so we knew what to do when the time came."

When the fire alarm went off, Bush immediately went to the area of rescue assistance to wait for help. The rescue areas are all marked and easily identified, so these places are checked in the event of something such as a fire.

Bush, though confident in the people working at public safety, admitted that he was nervous about the idea at first. He waited about four minutes before the public safety officers found him, and then they helped him down the stairs. When asked how he felt the situation was handled, Bush said, "The people that helped me knew what they were doing-they told me how to get in it and they weren't freaking out. It was the first time using it, so they were doing the best they could."

Both Koppeman and Bush agreed that everything went as smoothly as could have. Bush was a little nervous about the time it took to get down from the second floor and admitted that it took a little longer than he'd like, but he understood that they couldn't work any faster under the conditions. All in all, the event proved beneficial in more ways than one. Not only did they get someone down the stairs safely, they managed to make it a learning experience as well.

"For officially using it the first time, it came naturally. We definitely feel more prepared for next time," said Kopmann.

Bush also felt that it was a job well done, though if he were to experience the situation again he wouldn't want to deal with the chair at all.

"When faced with a life or death situation, I'm a light enough guy, so I think that I'd rather be carried next time," he said.

In a time of crisis, Parkland faculty proved that they were in fact prepared to handle any situation at hand and safely evacuated the building in a quick manner, impressing the firemen who arrived at the scene. No injuries were reported and little to no damage was done after the incident.