Fire and Emergency Services Minister Bill Byrne introduced the bill in September 2016 in response to the coroner’s report on Australia’s worst house fire. Eleven people, including eight children were killed in the 2011 house fire in Slacks Creek, south of Brisbane. At the time of the fire, two smoke alarms were fitted in the house, but neither had worked for a number of years. In his findings, Coroner James McDougall stated there was a “reasonable prospect that all or some of the victims could have escaped” had the smoke alarms been working at the time of the fire.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Katrina Carroll says that working smoke alarms are critical in all homes, with research indicating they reduce the risk of death in a house fire by up to 50%. She welcomes the law’s requirement that photoelectric alarms be used. “Photoelectric smoke alarms are more effective at detecting a wider range of fires and are good at sensing smouldering fires or thick smoke,” she says.

Every home and workplace needs an evacuation plan – and if you live or work in a multi-storey building, you’ll also need to plan how occupants, including children, will escape if the usual exits are blocked. An emergency evacuation ladder provides an affordable and practical solution, transforming almost any upper-storey window into a portable fire escape. And importantly, they can be used to carry children and infants safely to the ground in the event of a fire. This makes them a potentially life-saving emergency tool – and one that every multi-storey home should have. 

All buildings must develop, implement and adopt emergency plans to ensure a safe environment for employees, residents and visitors.

When developing these plans the needs of people with disabilities must be considered. Ideally, all visitors should be able to independently evacuate from a level of a building, other than the entry level by way of an evacuation lift. However, it is acknowledged that buildings may not have been constructed to provide this level of accessibility in evacuation routes.

If an emergency strikes in a child care facility or a hospital where children are being cared for, the task of getting everyone out safely is challenging. Because babies and children all need extra assistance in an emergency situation any evacuation is going to take longer than usual – which is why having an escape plan and the right emergency equipment is vital.

In May 2011, new Federal and State legislation was introduced to improve access to buildings for people with a disability. The new access provisions do not specifically address egress or evacuation provisions for people with a disability, but there are still legal obligations that need to be met under the Federal Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) legislation.

It is important for key stakeholders to understand their obligations and explore all appropriate options to ensure that people with a disability will be able to evacuate a building in an emergency.