Could YOU Escape In an Emergency?

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-center, 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™.