|
Do you
think that your existing safety signage is sufficient?
There is probably more that reasonably can be done to
ensure customer and employee safety, and EverGlow
photoluminescent from AddLight can be part of that
solution.
In an emergency situation
you want to get to the nearest exit. Think about the
places you go every day; the supermarket, discount
store, warehouse super-centre, manufacturing floor,
office, or warehouse. Do you always know where the exits
are? How long do think it would take you find the
closest emergency exit? 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or
longer? Next time you are in one of these places try it
and see.
Oh yes, one small detail,
you need to be blindfolded and must crawl on your hands
and knees from where you are to the nearest exit. That
isn't quite a fair comparison to a fire emergency
because it is missing the sense of panic and the smoke
that makes every breath a desperate gasp for air. Every
second counts in this situation! Every moment of
hesitation reduces your chance of survival!
Would you get to safety in a
fire emergency?
"It wouldn't happen to me,
I'd be able to get out"
On December 4, 1999, in
Worcester, Massachusetts, the first firefighters on the
scene for a warehouse fire heard there might be homeless
people inside. In executing a standard search protocol,
two firefighters became lost in the maze of rooms and
dark smoke. They called for help over their radios as
they were running out of air. The fire chief on the
scene sent four rescue teams to find the lost men, with
ropes to guide them back out. Two of those teams, four
additional men did not come out alive. Six lives lost.
Think about that. Six highly
trained professionals who fully understood the nature of
the situation were unable to exit a building that they
had entered just minutes before. They even had ropes to
guide them back to safety as well as a full set of
protective equipment and air to give them every
advantage possible.
How well would you fare in
an emergency situation? What would provide you an
advantage in finding and reaching safety?
Why existing safety codes
simply aren't enough
Most facilities contain EXIT
markings to meet existing code requirements. This mostly
consists of ceiling and wall mounted signs, many of them
electric and with lighting back-up provision by battery
power source. In a fire emergency smoke will collect at
the ceiling level, obscuring these markers. Since
childhood, you have been taught that the first thing to
do in a fire emergency is to drop and crawl under the
smoke, the only place where air is still available. From
a crawling position, it would be difficult to impossible
to see EXIT markers mounted at ceiling level under fire
emergency conditions. What would provide you a better
chance of survival in this scenario.
The
EverGlow Hi Advantage
The solution is an
EverGlow Hi Low Level Lighting (LLL) guidance
system at floor level to provide a means of clearly
identifying exits and how to get to them. EverGlow
Hi markings can be placed on or near the floor.
They require no electricity, rather they charge from
ambient light and provide glowing guidance when light is
no longer available. Firefighters in Europe report that
LLL markings helped them get in and get out of burning
buildings. They follow the LLL marks in reverse to get
in and have a clearly marked path to get out.
The full line of
EverGlow Hi products, a proven European safety
solution is available from AddLight.
|
