Helping universities to protect lives

The University of Strathclyde has teamed up with Ferno, to ensure their students, staff and visitors are safe in the event of an emergency.
The university, based in Glasgow, has taken delivery of 100 evacuation chairs which have been manufactured to suit any stairwell and allow people who maybe injured or have mobility problems to be moved downstairs safely and easily, without requiring any heavy lifting or manual handling, should any of the university sites need to be evacuated.
All chairs can be folded and wall mounted for easy storage and can be quickly deployed in an emergency.
We have supplied similar equipment to Google’s headquarters in Dublin and Trinity College in the city, as well as sports stadiums around the UK including Celtic, Manchester United, Huddersfield Town, Arsenal and England’s National stadium Wembley Arena.
Our managing director Jon Ellis says: “We offer a wide choice of equipment which is ideal for use by universities where there can be a large number of people on the premises at any one time. As schools, colleges and universities begin their preparations for the coming academic year, now is the perfect time to be thinking about their health and safety equipment and procedures. Planning for the worst can make all the difference should an emergency situation arise.”
Following changes in legislation such as the Equality Act 2010 and the Fire Safety Regulatory Reform Order 2005, venues and buildings 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 in the event of an incident.
Facilities managers 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.
We also provide an evacuation audit service 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.
Jon says: “Our Evacuation Audit is suitable for workplaces of all sizes, whether they employ four people or 400. In truth any building whether it is a major arena or bank offices will benefit from an evacuation audit.
“We also offer a training service to ensure that anyone using our products will have the right skills to use them safely and efficiently. Training is also available to any organisation, which under law is obliged to have a range of rescue and evacuation products on their premises.”