February Minutes
EHS Committee Meeting, February 11, 2003
- Child Passenger Week 2003
- WebCT Training
- Fire Extinguisher training
- EIU's Driver Training
- Building Coordinators - Rescue Assistance
The purpose of the Area of Rescue Assistance is to provide persons in wheelchairs to have a safe place to stay when there is a fire or other evacuation emergency in a building. Normally these are in stairwells unless the stairwells are too small to safely accommodate them. The alarm provides communication between the firemen and the person needing assistance. The firemen can acknowledge the call (by pressing a button) when they enter the building giving some comfort to the person that assistance is on the way. There is no other monitoring; it is strictly for communications between the firemen and the person who needs assistance. The control panels are located near the fire alarm panels because that is the point that firemen first enter our buildings. The Building Coordinators Handbook instructs that person (building coordinator) to take a position near the fire alarm panel and wait for information. I would assume the BC would look at the panels so that he/she could pass along information to the fire department or UPD when they arrived.
Penalties for tampering with the devices are the same as any other fire alarm device. I am not thoroughly familiar with the penalties but I believe they can include fines and/or suspension. The specifics can probably be obtained through the Campus Safety Officer or IGP.
When the alarm is going off without the fire alarm sounding probably means that the device was vandalized by someone and should be reported to Work Control who will report it to the electric shop to reset the device. There is no reason for a person in a wheelchair to activate the alarm at any time during normal building occupancy.
I am not sure where the information came from indicating that the panels were monitored by FPM or UPD but that is false. I can understand the frustration that the false alarms can be but they are required by ADA. It is my hope that these false alarms are curious persons rather than vandals and once the general populations realize what the buttons are and they will refrain from pushing a button to see what happens.
4. IAQ procedures
5. New topics |
