Improvement of safety of buildings for handicapped persons: Public buildings and constructions (tunnels, bridges etc.)

Safety in public buildings is obtained by technical means employed in hazardous situations (accident, fire etc.). In case of an emergency, endangered premises can be evacuated by emergency exits, while the monitoring center monitors the situation and activates the pre-prepared contingency plans to enable safe (managed) evacuation. Special attention needs to be paid to the handicapped persons. Their impediments (blindness, restricted movement etc.) pose extra challenge, when in the ensuing chaos or panic they try to find emergency or barrier-free exits. This article describes a proposal for expansion of the existing evacuation systems by elements of localization of the handicapped persons in buildings. The aim is to provide this information to the rescue teams and thus improve the evacuation capacities for the handicapped.