Aiding evacuation
February 1st 2007 Birmingham Hippodrome is replacing all its old emergency evacuation chairs with Evac+Chairs to improve ease of handling and evacuation. With an auditorium seating 1843 people, the Hippodrome needs the chairs not just to safely evacuate the mobility impaired in the event of a fire, but for removing members of the audience should they be taken ill. The Evac+Chair slimline airline model, which is narrow enough to push between rows, was chosen for the dress circle, and the standard model was selected for the stalls. Manufactured in the UK, the chair enables a single user to evacuate a person of up to 150kg quickly and easily using continuous belts to provide controlled descent over stair nosings in proportion to passenger weight. Evac+Chair International also provided training to Birmingham Hippodrome. Key trained staff are then able to internally train other staff to operate the chairs, with evacuation drills taking place every six weeks. More articles from Evac+Chair International Ltd: | 
