Emergency evacuation and vulnerable people: a case study of a chemical exposure emergency scenario involving people with disabilities
by Sofia Karma; Evangelos Koufakos; Milt Statheropoulos; C.L. Paul Thomas
International Journal of Emergency Management (IJEM), Vol. 17, No. 3/4, 2022

Abstract: Emergency evacuation of critical infrastructures, e.g., airports and high density crowd buildings, like shopping centres or entertainment venues, is considered a critical issue in terms of evacuees' safety; bottlenecks may lead to crowd jamming, causing evacuation delays and possibly putting in danger the evacuees. Vulnerable people, such as people with disabilities are more likely to be injured or killed in an emergency, triggered by a natural or man-made disaster; they are rarely consulted on provisions for their safety and most of them are not prepared for emergencies. This case-study involves the evacuation of people with disabilities at an airport terminal due to a chemical exposure event, under a broader emergency evacuation exercise, targeting at: a) proposing a 'Critical Indicators list' for the inclusion of people with disabilities in evacuation exercises of public buildings; b) providing the lessons learned; and c) reflecting on suggestions regarding preparedness, evacuation and triage in such events.

Online publication date: Wed, 31-Aug-2022

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