EvacuationWhat real disasters teach us about getting everyone out.
Every one of these stories ends the same way: the people who couldn't take the stairs were the ones a plan forgot. We tell them carefully, from the primary record, so the next building doesn't repeat them. No pitch. Just the lesson, and what to do about it.
- Compliance
California SB 435: what the new backup-power law means for assisted living
SB 435 requires California RCFEs licensed for 16+ residents to keep power on for at least 72 hours during an outage. Here's what it requires, the real deadlines (2030 and 2032, not 2027), and how a multi-site operator gets ready.
RCFE & Assisted LivingAug 10, 2026
· 6 min - Case Study
215 patients, no elevators: the hospital evacuation that went right
When Sandy flooded NYU Langone and the backup generators failed, staff carried roughly 215 patients — including critical-care adults and NICU newborns — down dark stairwells. Here's why it worked.
Healthcare & Senior LivingAug 4, 2026
· 6 min - Case Study
Four hours in a stairwell: the campus near-miss that changed UC
A UC Berkeley grad student's power wheelchair was trapped when a fire alarm shut the elevators. He waited four hours. No one was hurt — but the story changed policy across ten universities.
Universities & CampusAug 1, 2026
· 5 min - Case Study
69 floors: the 9/11 evacuation that proves preparedness works
John Abruzzo, a quadriplegic accountant, was carried down 69 floors of the North Tower on 9/11 and survived. Eight years earlier, without a chair, the same descent nearly killed him. The difference is the whole point.
Commercial FacilitiesJul 28, 2026
· 7 min - Case Study
The Station nightclub fire and the deadly math of one exit
In under six minutes, 100 people died at The Station — most of them funneling back to the single door they'd walked in through. It's the clearest lesson in crowd egress there is.
Venues & AssemblyJul 21, 2026
· 6 min - Case Study
The MGM Grand fire: the lesson every high-rise hotel still needs
On November 21, 1980, most of the 85 people who died at the MGM Grand weren't near the flames — they were on the upper floors, with smoke in the stairwells and no safe way down. Here's what it teaches hotels today.
Hotels & HospitalityJul 14, 2026
· 6 min
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