For centre-based early childhood education and care services, providing a safe environment for the babies and children in their care is paramount, both in their everyday operations, and also in emergency situations where an evacuation may be required. Safely evacuating infants and children is challenging within any setting – however, the risks and challenges are greatly amplified when the evacuation takes place in a multi-storey building. The National Quality Framework (NQF) sets out a range of regulatory requirements specific to Class 9b early childhood centres on upper levels of multi-storey buildings to assist providers operating in such buildings. In thisRead More Essential Design Considerations for Early Childhood Services in Multi-Storey Buildings
For centre-based early childhood education and care services, providing a safe environment for the babies and children in their care is paramount, both in their everyday operations, and also in emergency situations where an evacuation may be required. Safely evacuating infants and children is challenging within any setting – however, the risks and challenges are greatly amplified when the evacuation takes place in a multi-storey building. The National Quality Framework (NQF) sets out a range of regulatory requirements specific to Class 9b early childhood centres on upper levels of multi-storey buildings to assist providers operating in such buildings. In thisRead More 
How would you feel being trapped in your hotel room over Christmas? Amber Furlong checked into her accessible hotel room in Noosa on 24 December 2023 as part of a family holiday. Her room was on the 3rd floor of her hotel wing, serviced by a single lift. On 26 December, Amber discovered whilst heading for a swim for therapy that the single lift servicing her floor had broken down following severe storms. Reminiscent of a couple of lines from the Eagle’s song, Hotel California, her experience worsened. After requesting a ground-floor accessible apartment at check-in that ironically was vacant,
A Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan—also known as PEEP—is vital for keeping people safe in an emergency situation. And it’s even more important to have plans in place for disabled people, particularly those who require additional support in an evacuation situation. Around 1 in 5 Australians live with disability—and many of these disabilities can be invisible and dynamic, so it’s important to not assume someone’s access needs based on their appearance. What is a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP)? A Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) is an escape plan for people with additional support needs in the event of an emergency.
The Baby Mover Newborn evacuation apron is made of solid, flame-retardant material. This fabric makes our evacuation apron extra suitable for emergencies, like cases of fire or flooding. The BABY MOVER® makes hands-free evacuation of babies possible, making it especially ideal for newborn evacuation from hazardous situations within hospitals or childcare centres. The newborn babies can be put in the pockets on the front and either side of the evacuation apron. The reinforced seams of the evacuation apron pockets do not need extra support and are made of tear-resistant material. The pockets’ strength, safety and security allow the person carrying
Safety is a critically important aspect of a childcare centre. The gathering of toddlers, babies and infants, in general, makes the place highly dependent in an emergency. Since infants depend on care, the need for extra help and a transparent evacuation plan is required. Safe and quick evacuation can’t be missed in hazardous situations within childcare centres, meaning a clear overview should be fully documented within a Group Emergency Evacuation Plan (GEEP) to indicate how the adults manage babies and toddlers during the rapid emergency evacuation. In this GEEP, both the actions and devices should be noted. Attention should be
To be an inclusive community, opportunities must be provided for everyone to be able to participate in all facets of life, including work opportunities, for people with disability. However, whilst the Building Code of Australia (BCA) mandates accessibility for people with disability, it is silent on how to evacuate people with disability in an emergency such as fire. What if you use a wheelchair and work in a multi-story building and there is a fire and lifts cannot be used? Not having a building code with prescriptive requirements to evacuate people with disability in 2022, I believe, is negligent by
Gas Explosion Takes Out Lifts. On 30 March 2009 a gas explosion occurred on level 29 in the plant room area of a residential high-rise building in Spring Street, Bondi Junction, where two plumbers were working on a gas-fired water heater. There was no ongoing fire, but the blast wave travelled down a riser and blew in most of the doors on levels 23 and above, including the fire stair and lift doors, making the lifts inoperable. Walls were blown out on the top two levels and there were cracks in the stairwell at level 26, which progressively worsened on
Complying with national emergency evacuation management standards can be complicated: special planning is required for evacuating people with disability, infants and sick or elderly people. For the buildings, workplaces and facilities in which people with limited mobility live, work or receive treatment, purpose-built equipment – such as emergency evacuation chairs – is essential in order to meet the Australian Standard regulations for planning for emergencies. Keeping everyone safe in a multi-storey building while also ensuring compliance with these standards doesn’t need to be so complicated. Industry-leading equipment, which is designed to meet specific regulations around emergency evacuation planning for hospitals
Hospitals around the world are updating – and upgrading – their emergency evacuation plans with an innovative baby evacuation device which enables the safe and speedy rescue of up to six babies at a time. This may sound like hype, but consider this: with game-changing safety features which directly solve the problems with traditional infant evacuation devices, it’s no surprise that emergency planning committees are scrambling to make the switch. If you manage a nursery, NICU or SBCU as part of a hospital evacuation plan, you’ll want to know about the Evacu B baby evacuation device. Here’s why. A failsafe
In late August 2011, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake – the strongest east of the Mississippi since 1944 – shook Washington, D.C., with such force that it cracked the Washington Monument and damaged the National Cathedral. On the sixth floor of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Children’s National in Washington, D.C., staff felt the hospital swaying from side to side. After the shaking stopped, they found the natural disaster exposed another fault: The unit’s 200-plus staff members were not all equally knowledgeable or confident regarding the unit’s plan for evacuating its 66 newborns or their own specific role during