P.E.I. needs laws to safeguard disabled in event of fire: worker

Council echoes call for provisions in evacuation plans

Monday, July 9, 2007 | 8:58 AM
CBC News

A P.E.I. man who uses a wheelchair and was left in the basement of a building when a fire alarm sounded says there should be laws to force buildings to have evacuation plans for the disabled.

Fraser MacPhee was working at the Atlantic Technology Centre in Charlottetown when the fire alarm went off. He and another man were left behind for too long, he said, before firefighters arrived to help them out.

Luckily, there was no fire in the building. But, MacPhee said, the incident left him wondering why there is no plan in place to make sure disabled people escape buildings safely during a blaze.

The Prince Edward Island Council of the Disabled is asking the same question.

“It’s a law that needs to exist. If there’s an evacuation plan for a building, there needs to be consideration in it for people with disabilities,” said Barry Schimidle, council executive director.

“Not everybody can use the stairs and there needs to be some way for the people who are operating the building, who are responsible for it, to ensure that people with disabilities are properly evacuated.”

The provincial government and the City of Charlottetown are governed by the Life Safety Code that does not require any building to have a plan in place that deals with evacuating people with disabilities.

Randy MacDonald, Charlottetown’s fire inspector, said people are responsible for their own safety.

“When you’re dealing with disabilities, no matter what the circumstances are, we’re all responsible for our own safety,” MacDonald said.

The Atlantic Technology Centre does have an evacuation plan that includes people with disabilities, a spokesperson said.

In this case, a fire warden knew within minutes that the fire alarm was false, the spokesperson said, and would have ensured MacPhee was evacuated safely had it been a real emergency.