{"id":172055,"date":"2020-11-14T14:13:14","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T12:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?p=96361"},"modified":"2020-11-14T14:13:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-14T12:13:14","slug":"disability-rights-awareness-month-encouraging-building-owners-to-prioritize-emergency-evacuation-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/disability-rights-awareness-month-encouraging-building-owners-to-prioritize-emergency-evacuation-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Disability Rights Awareness Month \u2013 Encouraging Building Owners to Prioritize Emergency Evacuation Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>JOHANNESBURG, 13 November 202011 September 2019: <\/strong>Just before 01:00 on the 14<sup>th<\/sup> of June 2017, a fire broke out in the kitchen of a fourth floor flat at Grenfell Tower, a 23 storey tower block in North Kensington, West London, in the United Kingdom. Within minutes, the fire had raced up the exterior of the building and then spread to all four sides. By 03:00, most of the upper floors were well alight. 72 people died. \u2013 In an inquiry heard last week, a fire safety expert said engineers had a \u201cduty\u201d to consider how disabled residents would have evacuated Grenfell Tower, an inquiry heard on last week. Dr Barbara Lane\u2019s comments came in response to questions about a 2012 report from fire safety consultants Exova. The report, done before Grenfell\u2019s refurbishment, was said to lack detail on how people with mobility issues could escape the building in an emergency. At least 22 disabled people lived above the 10th floor of the 24-storey building at the time of the fire. \u2013 In raising awareness for the rights of disabled people and encouraging the development of more accessible built environments for people with disabilities, let us not forget to prioritize their safety.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?attachment_id=96362\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"80\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-96362 size-thumbnail lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/disability-rights-awareness-month-encouraging-building-owners-to-prioritize-emergency-evacuation-safety.png\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-96362 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/disability-rights-awareness-month-encouraging-building-owners-to-prioritize-emergency-evacuation-safety.png\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"80\">South Africa commemorates National Disability Rights Awareness month annually from the 3<sup>rd<\/sup> of November to the 3<sup>rd<\/sup> of December. The month long campaign carries weekly sub-themes which are reflected in the Medium Term Strategic Framework (2019-2024) of government. The following sub-themes are intended to focus conversations on priority areas identified by the disability sector, which also link to the seven priorities of government:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Week 1: Children and young people with disabilities empowered to chart their own destiny through access to quality lifelong learning<\/li>\n<li>Week 2: A built environment accessible to all persons with disabilities<\/li>\n<li>Week 3: Persons with disabilities as equal players in building inclusive economies<\/li>\n<li>Week 4: Children and women with disabilities \u2013 feeling and being safe as equal citizens in their communities<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In creating built environment that are accessible to persons with disabilities, Evac+Chair South Africa would like to encourage building owners and managers to prioritize having adequate emergency evacuation procedures and resources in place to assist the disabled and mobility impaired. The responsibility in multi storey buildings such as office blocks, hotels, apartment blocks, shopping centres etc. rests with the building owners\/managers\/body corporate or any other type of body which has the responsibility for the safety, maintenance of such buildings according to the OHS ACT, Labour ACT, THE PUBLIC SERVICE REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION HANDBOOK, and the NEW BUILDING REGULATIONS (SANS 10400).<\/p>\n<p>Evac+Chair \u2013 South Africa is the local manufacturer and distributor of World\u2019s No.1 Stairway Evacuation Chair<\/p>\n<p>Since 1982. The EVAC+CHAIR&nbsp; is designed to carry mobility impaired people down stairs in an emergency evacuation when the lifts are not working. The EVAC+CHAIR&nbsp; is portable \u2013 no installation or modification of stairways is required.<\/p>\n<p>Gavin Glass, Evac+Chair \u2013 South Africa\u2019s CEO said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing disabled myself, makes me happy to know that we are making products that helps saves people\u2019s lives. \u2013 &nbsp;I would like to encourage building owners and managers to plan and be adequately prepared for safe emergency evacuations so we can avoid devastating events such as the Grenfell Tower fire\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_96363\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96363\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?attachment_id=96363\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt width=\"801\" height=\"1250\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 801px) 100vw, 801px\" class=\"wp-image-96363 size-large lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/disability-rights-awareness-month-encouraging-building-owners-to-prioritize-emergency-evacuation-safety.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-96363 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/disability-rights-awareness-month-encouraging-building-owners-to-prioritize-emergency-evacuation-safety.jpg\" alt width=\"801\" height=\"1250\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-96363\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gavin Glass \u2013 CEO at Evac+Chair \u2013 South Africa Photographer: Evac+Chair<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_96364\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96364\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?attachment_id=96364\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" class=\"wp-image-96364 size-full lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/disability-rights-awareness-month-encouraging-building-owners-to-prioritize-emergency-evacuation-safety-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-96364 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/disability-rights-awareness-month-encouraging-building-owners-to-prioritize-emergency-evacuation-safety-1.jpg\" alt width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-96364\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Evac+Chair South Africa Team Photographer: Evac+Chair<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><strong>Video:<\/strong> Disability Rights Awareness Month \u2013 Encouraging Building Owners to Prioritize Emergency Evacuation Safety<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mypr.co.za\/save-with-myprs-monthly-flat-fee\/\">CLICK HERE to submit your press release to MyPR.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More Info on Disability Rights Awareness Month \u2013 Encouraging Building Owners to Prioritize Emergency Evacuation Safety here:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/evac-chair.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/evac-chair.co.za\/<\/a><br \/><strong>Twitter<\/strong>:<br \/><strong>Facebook<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/evacchairsa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/evacchairsa<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-pagination pagination\">Pages: <span class=\"post-page-numbers current\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>1<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/disability-rights-awareness-month-encouraging-building-owners-to-prioritize-emergency-evacuation-safety\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>2<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\">Source: MyPR.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JOHANNESBURG, 13 November 202011 September 2019: Just before 01:00 on the 14th of June 2017, a fire broke out in the kitchen of a fourth floor flat at Grenfell Tower, a 23 storey tower block in North Kensington, West London, in the United Kingdom. Within minutes, the fire had raced up the exterior of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584,3331,9021,1],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-172055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"category-cape-town","9":"category-mypr","10":"category-south-africa","11":"tag-mypr","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/disability-rights-awareness-month-encouraging-building-owners-to-prioritize-emergency-evacuation-safety.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}