The recent report into the Hillsborough disaster has illustrated in stark and disturbing detail just how important it is that large venues such as sports grounds and entertainment arenas have effective evacuation procedures in place.
Following changes in legislation such as the Equality Act 2010 and the Fire Safety Regulatory Reform Order 2005, venues which are open to the public, no matter how big or small, are legally obliged to ensure that all members of the public, particularly those with disabilities or mobility issues, have equal access to facilities and can safely escape a property in the event of incident.
Property managers also have to take responsibility for the evacuation of everyone on their site, whether they be employees, visitors or members of the public and whether it is just one individual who has suffered an injury or a crowd of thousands.
Simon Shepherd, our commercial director, says: “The key to making sure everyone is evacuated safely in an emergency situation is to be prepared and know exactly what needs to be done and who needs do it. It is essential that every member of staff knows how to act, where to direct people, and what equipment is available to get everyone off the premises safely.”
We provide a range of consultancy services to ensure that property owners meet all statutory safety standards and provides a range of training services and evacuation audits to a wide range of customers including football clubs, arenas, property owners and facility managers.
Human behavior in emergency situations differs and studies have shown that about two thirds of the time available to escape is taken up by a person’s initial reaction. Often there is a delay while people decide if the alarm is real and only act after seeing the reaction of others around them to the developing situation. It is therefore crucial that an effective emergency plan is put in place for those who may need extra help to escape.
Ensuring that you have the correct evacuation procedures in place and are complying with the relevant health and safety legislation can be a minefield which is why several sports clubs across the UK have used Ferno to assess their risks and evacuation plan in the case of an emergency.
Ferno’s Evacuation Audit is a new form of risk assessment which considers all aspects of an emergency evacuation including the management of disabled people, treating the injured, the effects of smoke, lighting and crowd control.
Simon says: “Our Evacuation Audit is suitable for all public buildings and venues where members of the public congregate. This can be anything from museums and art galleries to massive sports stadiums and concert venues. It is also suitable for workplaces of all sizes, whether they employ four people of 400.
“In truth any building whether it is a major arena or bank offices will benefit from an evacuation audit. Even those who think they have all the correct procedures in place may be surprised by what else they can do to aid a safe and speedy evacuation should an emergency situation arise.
“We recently carried out an evacuation audit at Huddersfield Town’s John Smith’s Stadium where we assessed all areas of the football ground and were able to suggest what measures needed to be put in place and what equipment they needed to make an evacuation of all visitors as easy as possible.
“As we all now know from the Hillsborough disaster, there were lots of things that went wrong on that day and football stadiums have changed a lot since then, but having a good evacuation procedure in place could really help to prevent such tragic loss of life should an emergency situation ever arise.”
Football and sports clubs which have used Ferno’s emergency medical and evacuation equipment and its consultancy and training services includes Huddersfield Town, Derby County, Arsenal, West Bromwich Albion and the Leicester Tigers. Meanwhile, Ferno equipment was also in place at several locations throughout the Olympic and Paralympics.
Ferno’s evacuation equipment includes several different evacuation chairs which can be manufactured to suit any stairwell in any building such as the EZ Glide® Evacuation Stair Chair which glides patient loads up to 227kg down stairs without carrying or lifting and the Compact 4 Track which glides down stairs with ease.
All chairs can be folded and wall mounted for easy storage and quickly deployed in an emergency. Ferno’s evacuation equipment also includes basic trauma equipment for anyone who is injured and can’t be taken by chair ranging from carry sheets and stretchers to burns treatment and emergency foil blankets.
And to make sure that customers can get the best out of their equipment, Ferno has also launched a new training service.
Ferno managing director Jon Ellis says: “The training service ensures that anyone using Ferno’s products will have the right skills set to use them safely and efficiently. Training is also available to any organisations, which under law are obliged to have a range of rescue and evacuation products on their premises.
“We recently carried out a training session for the National Gallery of Scotland when it took delivery of a Ferno EZ Glide. This is the first chair of its kind in the industry. It has multiple uses as a stair chair, evacuation chair or transport chair and is suitable for many different environments.
“Our work with the National Gallery is a perfect example of what we can offer to our customers in terms of service delivery – not only a great product but also high quality support training to ensure they get the very best out of their investment. A particular area of expertise is our ability to ‘customise’ and ‘tailor’ courses and programmes to suit a wide range of customer and clients’ needs, which is what we did with the National Gallery.”
“The EZ Glide chair will be extremely useful” said Michael Clarke, Director of the Scottish National Gallery. “The practicality and ease of use of the chair will help the Gallery aid disabled visitors as well as ensuring the safety of all visitors in the event of an accident or emergency.
“We found the training programme to be invaluable. It gave us the opportunity to learn about the full potential of the chair and all its uses, meaning that we are likely to use it far more than we would have done.”
Ferno’s Evacuation Audit is suitable for all leisure venues including sports stadiums, music venues, theatres and cinemas as well as hotels, schools, universities and workplaces, large and small. As Ferno work closely with the emergency services all staff are experts in all aspects of emergency evacuation planning.
