George Butts • “Preparing for Disaster in the America” I’m producing a blog-talk radio show Tuesday’s @ 0700 Pacific. We expanded it across the country with an all hazards approach. Be my guest.
Our guest this Tuesday May 14th is Lynn Moloney, President of Advanced Egress Solutions. Lynn is a mother of five and lives on Long Island in NY. Prior to staying home to raise her family, she was the Branch Manager of a local bank. While home raising the kids, she was active in local charities and schools. About 3 years ago her son’s school held a fire drill. He had a broken ankle and was on crutches. His classroom was located on the second floor and since use of elevators is prohibited during a fire drill, he was told to wait by a window and in a “real” emergency, a fireman would come and get him. Lynn couldn’t believe anyone would be left behind during a drill, no less a child. She began looking into local regulations regarding persons being left behind and was astonished by what she found. If a facility does not have evacuation devices to move frail or immobile persons to safety they are placed either in an “area of refuge” which is simply a predetermined location in a building, like a window; or the person is moved to a “safe room” which, in new construction, is an area built to keep fire out for a period of time. She found neither of those solutions acceptable. She began to look for an evacuation device to donate to the school and found the AlbacMat Rescue Mat from Australia. The inventor, Allison Backhouse, worked in a nursing home and found out during a presentation by the Fire Captain that there was no means to move a patient other than a bed sheet or blanket. She came up with the idea to create a device designed to safely move incapacitated patients that would also be easy on the rescuer. The AlbacMat was born 10 years ago and there are currently over 15,000 in use worldwide. Lynn believed in the product and launched her own business in order to sell these devices. She has since added over 10 products to her inventory. She now carries the largest selection of Evacuation Devices in the United States.
By Dan White January 12, 2013 Original article from EMS1