Emergency Evacuation Equipment – Health and Safety Alert

Published: 4 January 2023

Colleagues,

A timely reminder to ensure that all evacuation equipment which includes evacuation chairs and slides are regularly used (in practice) inspected and maintained in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions.

Nationally, it has been reported that evacuation chairs which had been stored/mounted on the wall without being used for a long time (i.e. the schools had no need to use the equipment for an extended period following installation) were found to be faulty when the chairs were needed to be used.

Several models of evacuation chairs work using tracks with rubber friction belts, allowing for a single-person operation. In these incidents, the chairs were not used for extended periods and the rubber friction belts had warped around the rotating wheels positioned at each end of the belt. This compromised the operation of the belts and allowed the chair to ‘run away’ from the operator.

Actions for schools:

• all evacuation equipment, particularly evacuation chairs must be checked by suitably qualified persons, and any regular maintenance procedure recommended by the manufacturer must be followed
• regular practice using the evacuation equipment by those trained (the operator) to do so is required
• in addition, advice should be obtained from the manufacturer as to how issues can be prevented

If operator training or refresher training is required for staff to use evacuation equipment, then contact the Corporate Health and Safety Team (CHST) we may be able to support with training.

Should you require further information, please get in touch by emailing employee.healthandsafety@derby.gov.uk

Darren Allsobrook
Darren.allsobrook@derby.gov.uk
Health and Safety Team Manager

Education