Dear Ian and Satoshi
I would suggest that the answer is not that simple as it depends on what
happens for those people for whom the refuge space is too small. If the
management of the building can come up with a plan that caters for those
people who will not be accommodated then the smaller space may be part of
the strategy. However, having said that any refuge area is going to be too
small since the chances of there being more people who would want to use the
space than space provided is high. I have been in a situation with two
powerchair users and a manual wheelchair user when an emergency evacuation
took place and the refuge area certainly did not fit us all in.
So the answer is that no refuge area is likely to be big enough - even if it
meets a regulatory size !
The danger is that providing a small refuge area may make the management of
the building feel that they have done their job, when they should be
thinking about how to get people out of the building completely.
My thoughts for now.
Cheers
Marcus
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