MichelleWyatt

Thank you so much Anthony!

Hi Im seeking information on fire safety. We are in a block of flats with a communal garden. There are 3 households in their 70s. One has had a quadruple heart bypass, another has had a mild stroke. I have to use an electric wheelchair. During the covid19 lockdown we want to sit in the garden maintaining social distancing. This is because staying indoors is incredibly stressful. We have been told by our landlord that if we want to sit in a chair anywhere in the garden, we must lift that chair & carry it back into the house each time we finish our sitting out. Our landlord is saying that to leave the chair out is a fire risk because if a fireman needed to get to a flat quickly, they might trip up the chair. This is resulting in 70 year olds having to either sit on the floor outside or be trapped in their houses during this lockdown. It seems to me a far bogger risk to ask someone in their 70s or myself in my electric wheelchair to carry chairs multiple times daily. I need a lie down chair due to my disability. There is no such thing as a light, easy to carry recliner. Our manager is terrified of being fined due to her belief about these chairs. Some of them are not even on paths but she still believes if anyone 'trips up' them she will be punished. Yet she has no concern about accidents from people carrying the chairs & is ordering people to carry them. What is your understandings & suggestions regarding this? Thank you. I can pay the £340 for the risk assessment but its hard to come up with that kind of money when you are an individual & disabled rather than a business. We are willing to adapt the garden in a way that enables to firemen to route a hose, dragging it along with say a pole specifically positioned so as they drag it the pole controls its position so that it goes along the path without any of the chairs interfering with the hose. There must be some adaptation idea that can resolve this?