Help Desk → Fire Safety for Wheelchair Users → Key Areas → Interior Areas
3.1. Interior Areas
Areas Of Refuge
Areas of Refuge or fire-rated safe havens on a building"s upper and belowgrade floors designed for persons with mobility impairments to await further evacuation from the responding fire company. These areas can be provided in stair landings, elevator lobbies or an area that is properly fire-rated, and provides two-way emergency communication so that a wheelchair user can alert authorities to his or her location.
Exit Stairs
Wide Exit Stairs are required to provide 48 inches between handrails so that three fire fighters will have enough room to carry a person from a landing to safety.
Elevators
Means of Egress Elevators are elevators with stand-by power in addition to the fire service required of all elevators. The stand-by power enables fire fighters to travel to persons with mobility impairments on the upper or below-grade levels of a building and to evacuate them to the outdoors, even when a building's normal electrical service is lost.
