Emergency protocols: Evacuating a hotel when you are mobility impaired

A summer or two ago, I was staying at a Hilton when the fire alarm went off. Even as much as I travel, I wasn’t sure what to do! Due to chronic illness, I’m a part time power chair user, and I was doing much more poorly at that time. The elevators automatically shut down, as is normal protocol, and my husband wound up carrying my chair down four flights of stairs. Fortunately, I’m ambulatory even at my worst, but it definitely got me thinking.

Today I saw a Facebook post that addressed the issue thoroughly. This is reprinted with permission from the author, Joan DeVore-Gutierrez, whose son is fully wheelchair dependent. Many thanks to Joan for covering the topic so thoroughly.

THOSE WITH MOBILITY ISSUES!

Hey friends, we travel here 2-3 times a year with our son who is a full time wheel chair user. Yesterday the hotel had a fire alarm go off. As we were leaving, it didn’t impede our day. However, we did get a phone call from our group member in the hotel with her daughter with physical disabilities. She didn’t know what to do. This morning we were stopped in the lobby by a mom with tears in her eyes, saying she lost sleep last night and was glad she found us. Her son is 40 and a full time wheel chair year. She said didn’t know what she should do. She wanted to ask us what we do.

If you are traveling with someone who has mobility issues this is what we do.

Alarm goes off.

Call the front desk. Tell them your room number and explain you will need assistance to evacuate.

The hotel will tell if they want you to evacuate. Yesterday they said there was no need to evacuate, because it was a bad sprinkler that set off the alarm. If it was in fact a real fire, they would note you were in the room and also notify the fire department.

They document, upon check in, all those with wheel chairs and such. They just don’t know if you are in the room at the time of the alarm.

In this case, the alarm went in for 20 minutes. They did not announce that it was a bad sprinkler. So, many people evacuated with much difficulty.

If you are traveling with anyone who has mobility issues and a fire alarm goes off please please call the front desk immediately and explain your situation and note your room number. Safe travels everyone!

We also bought a perfect lift so the two of us could evacuate our son down many flights of stairs.