Documents Reichelt, Paul A. 2 results

"The physical demands on firefighting personnel were investigated when using different types of track-type stair descent devices designed for the emergency evacuation of high rise buildings as a function of staircase width and evacuation urgency. Twelve firefighters used five track-type stair descent devices during simulated urgent and non-urgent evacuations. The devices were evaluated under two staircase width conditions (1.12, and 1.32 m), and three devices were also evaluated under a narrower staircase condition (0.91 m). Dependent measures included electromyographic (EMG) data, spine motion, heart rates, Borg Scale ratings, task durations and descent velocities. Stair descent speeds favored the devices that had shorter fore/aft dimensions when moving through the landing. EMG results indicated that there were tradeoffs due to design features, particularly on the landings where the physical demands tended to be greater. On the landings, devices that could be rolled on four wheels reduced the deltoid and bicep activation levels."

"The physical demands on firefighting personnel were investigated when using different types of hand-carried stair descent devices designed for the emergency evacuation of high rise buildings as a function of staircase width and evacuation urgency. Twelve firefighters used three hand-carried stair descent devices during simulated urgent and non-urgent evacuations. The devices were evaluated under three staircase width conditions (0.91, 1.12, and 1.32 m). For comparison, an urgent manual carry was also performed on the 1.12 m wide stairs. Dependent measures included electromyographic (EMG) data, heart rates, Borg Scale ratings, task durations and descent velocities. Results indicated that the stair chair with extended front handles, which allows the front person to descend the stairs facing forward, reduced the time integrated back muscle EMG by half and showed a descent velocity that was 1.8 times faster than the other stair descent devices in the study. There were no differences across staircase widths."