There is currently a concern for physically disabled people's safety in the event of an emergency evacuation situation from buildings. Physically disabled people would normally use the passenger lifts to access various floors throughout a typical multi-storey building. However, traditional non-fire rated lifts should not be used in the event of a fire.

Building managers have a duty of care to provide everyone within the building with a means of escape. Due to the level of disability some people will not be able to use the building's emergency staircase. Thus physically disabled people go into designated safe refuge areas located on each floor (usually on the staircase landing), until help arrives.

Building management will not know if someone has entered a refuge during a building evacuation unless someone physically checks every refuge area. This can take time and put this person in unnecessary danger. Secondly, the disabled person waiting in the refuge will be unsure if someone is coming to assist them and may attempt to use a passenger lift or get themselves downstairs in desperation.

We have worked in the radio communications industry for over 20 years and have used this specialist knowledge to develop an emergency voice communication system for use in a building refuge area. Installed in a number of public access buildings Refuge Alerter® is a unique wireless alternative to hard wired solutions.