As a building or business owner, it can be difficult to navigate the ins and outs of building regulations to ensure the safety of your staff. One area that should not be overlooked is legislation on fire safety, particularly the need for emergency evacuation chairs. These chairs can make all the difference when it comes to fire or emergency evacuations so it is pivotal that you build your knowledge on why they are important and whether or not your building requires one. In this guide, we break down what emergency evacuation chairs are and what fire safety regulations say about them.
- What are Emergency Evacuation Chairs?
- How Does an Emergency Evacuation Chair Work?
- Who Needs an Emergency Evacuation Chair?
- What Does Fire Safety Regulation Say About Evacuation Chairs?
- How Many Evacuation Chairs Do I Need and Where Should I Place Them?
- Put the Safety of All Your Staff First with Emergency Evacuation Chairs Today
What are Emergency Evacuation Chairs?
As mentioned, the evacuation chair is designed to provide a way to ensure that people with a disability or mobility impairments can be evacuated from the building safely and quickly in the event of a fire emergency. They are most often wheeled chairs with strong metal frames and tracks to allow safe, controlled descents down stairs. They are designed to be used to help anyone who has trouble effectively moving during a fire emergency, including people with a disability, injured people, pregnant women, mental health concerns, or any other medical conditions.
How Does an Emergency Evacuation Chair Work?
Evacuation chairs are designed to be strong and lightweight at the same time, so they can support the weight of an adult while still being moved and controlled with ease. Here are the 6 steps used to operate an emergency evacuation chair:
- Bring the evacuation chair to the occupant’s location.
- Unlock any brakes or safety mechanisms to prepare the chair for use.
- Gently transfer the occupant into the chair, securing them with the provided safety belt and ensuring they are sitting comfortably.
- The operator should now grasp the handles of the evacuation chair and carefully guide the tracks down onto the stairs.
- After checking the chair is securely on the tracks, the evacuation chair can now be guided down or up the stairs using controlled movements. Depending on the type of evacuation chair, this can either be done manually or with electrical controls.
- Once the evacuation chair is safely down the stairs, the track can be put away and operators can now wheel the chair to the designated safe area.
For more information on how to safely operate an emergency evacuation chair, take a look at our guide!

Who Needs an Emergency Evacuation Chair?
Emergency evacuation chairs are an essential for assisting individuals with mobility impairments during emergency evacuations. This includes people with physical disabilities, the elderly, those recovering from injuries, pregnant women and others who may have difficulty navigating stairs unassisted. They are particularly crucial in multi-storey buildings where physically moving down multiple flights of stairs would be extremely challenging or impossible for those with limited mobility.
What Does Fire Safety Regulation Say About Evacuation Chairs?
The person in charge of the building, whether it’s a business owner, employer, or landlord, is responsible under current fire safety regulation for carrying out a fire safety risk assessment. Part of this assessment is working out the procedure and path of an emergency evacuation, which must take disabled people, the elderly, and other vulnerable individuals into consideration.
As part of that safety assessment, evacuation chairs may become a key tool for ensuring the safe and quick evacuation of the building. This includes not only for commercial property that is only used by employees but also for public buildings which are easily accessible to the public.
It is important to note that existing regulations do not doesn’t name evac chairs specifically. However, if you are unable to provide any means of evacuation for disabled people, people with mental health troubles, pregnant women, and people who may need assistance, this could be deemed to be in breach of your legal responsibilities.
Furthermore, government guidelines for fire and safety state evacuation chairs as the preferred means of escape for such individuals, as they do not have a risk of becoming ineffective if the building loses power like alternative means such as an evacuation lift.
How Many Evacuation Chairs Do I Need and Where Should I Place Them?
The specifics on the number of evacuation chairs you should install in a building will depend largely on the size and shape of the building. You want to make sure you provide the means of evacuation necessary for everyone but getting a chair for every floor may be expensive and unnecessary.
Working with expert consultants to create a fire risk assessment can ensure you have the right amount of emergency evacuation chairs ready to access. To make sure that they are accessible in an emergency, they should be stored against the wall near the stairs and be highly visible so that a trained individual can quickly make use of them.
Even if you aren’t readily aware of any employees who have a disability or are otherwise mobility impaired, having an evacuation chair can ensure you provide a means of escape for anyone who becomes unable to move, including visitors to the building and business clients.
Put the Safety of All Your Staff First with Emergency Evacuation Chairs Today
At Fire & Safety Centre, we strive to put fire safety at the forefront of everyone’s minds. That’s why we offer a range of emergency evacuation chairs to suit your needs. From the simple Evac Chair 300H MK5 to the Evac Chair 900H Power with all the bells and whistles, we have something for you. Shop for an evacuation chair for disabled, temporarily injured and pregnant people today to ensure the safety of all your staff today.
FAQs
Are EVAC chairs a legal requirement?
Emergency evacuation chairs themselves are not a legal requirement. However, as a business or building owner, it is your responsibility to provide a safe and secure evacuation procedure for everyone, including those who have impaired mobility. That’s where emergency evacuation chairs come in. They provide a safe means of evacuation for anyone who may struggle to use the stairs in emergency situations.
What is an alternative to evacuation chairs?
If an evacuation chair for disabled and immobile people is not for you, we also offer evacuation sheets . With a range of emergency evacuation equipment at your disposal, you can find the best tools for your evacuation procedure at Fire and Safety Centre.
Can you use an EVAC chair to go upstairs?
If your emergency evacuation plan requires occupants to evacuate by going up the stairs, don’t worry, we have the product for you. The Evac Chair 900H Power has the ability to go up and down the stairs using a powered belt track system and control pad. This gives you more flexibility when it comes to creating an evacuation plan so you can find the best evacuation route in your building.
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