Dan Roberge
We are here at the Together We Care conference. How many years have been coming to this show?
Steve Agisnaga
This will be our fifth year now.
Dan Roberge
Wow. And we're always across from each other. We reserve the same booth. How has it been this year compared to the other years?
Steve Agisnaga
Yeah, all the years are great. It's a great opportunity to, see the clients once again, face to face, shake hands and, anything new that we may have to present to them as well?
Dan Roberge
Excellent. So now your main product is what? What do you sell?
Steve Agisnaga
So we manufacture evacuation chairs and power stair climbers.
Dan Roberge
And so how do they work? What's the what's the difference between any other type of chair for sure.
Steve Agisnaga
So just to give you a little overview, evac chair in North America has been around for over 40 years now, since 1982. Original designer and inventor is out of New York. And, the difference is it just has different weight capacities. Some are manual, some are battery operated. And the idea of the chair is to evacuate people from a facility anywhere there's stairs to get people down and out in emergencies. Now the power stair climber can be used to go up and down by battery operation. And yeah, that's a little brief overview of who we are. We got some great stories. When you're ready I can share. Yeah.
Dan Roberge
Yeah. Absolutely. So just so I understand so like a patient or a resident would sit in the chair and what kind of person needs to be able to lift this? Like, is it heavy? What's the compensation for the weight?
Steve Agisnaga
So there's no lifting required. As long as the person's able bodied and able to maneuver the chair, they'll be able to use it on the stairs. It uses friction technology on the tracks. So in reality, like I said, there's no lifting or pulling required, using a technology that allows with the weight of the person to activate the tracks. And you can go down the stairs nice and smooth and you have control. So if you do need to stop, you can also stop.
Dan Roberge
And so, our homes are required to have these chairs, lwhat's the, the compliance mandate for, for them to have these evacuation chairs.
Steve Agisnaga
So in Canada there's no law, but the Aoda, or the NFPA, so the National Fire Protection Association or the Aoda, which is focused on people with disabilities, do recommend having evacuation chairs for emergencies. So there's no lock here. There is some states in the US to do have laws to have evacuation chairs.
Dan Roberge
And so, what do people do if they don't have them? How do they work the problem?
Steve Agisnaga
So that's a that's a great question that we always ask. And usually what they're going to tell you is we wait for the fire department or we put them in a refuge area. The problem with that is there's a lot of variables. And truth be told, a fire department, when they arrive to a scene where there's an emergency, their job is to focus at the emergency. The fire, the gas leak, whatever it is, they're going to save lives because they're heroes. But how beautiful is it when they arrive, they're told everyone's out. Because if not, what happens is they're going to risk their lives. The person waiting, and maybe somebody is waiting with that person. So all these lives are in danger. That could have been avoided by just getting them down and out.
Dan Roberge
Wow, wow. And so is there a level of training that is required to work the chair? Like, what does your company provide related to that?
Steve Agisnaga
So we have tons of online free videos because like I said, it's very easy to use. Some facilities will require or do request, a live training in person or a virtual training. So it is very easy to use a chair.
Dan Roberge
Okay. Excellent. Now, you said you had stories. So what are some examples where the chairs come in and it's maybe higher profile for sure. It's been a success story.
Steve Agisnaga
Well you know a sad tragedy. The 911 towers. Thankfully though, our chairs did save people's lives. It was actually, he was actually interviewed on Q107, John Abruzzo. He was, say, from the 68th floor. He was in a power wheelchair. The weight 600 pounds, the wheelchair. How do you bring down that wheelchair 68 floors down? So thankfully, they had installed or evac chairs on every floor of every stairwell. And on that day, they were able to transfer him to our chair and take him down 68 flights of stairs. And he's alive to tell the story. And our chairs are actually at the 911 memorial as well.
Dan Roberge
Oh, what a what a great story and a terrible moment.
Steve Agisnaga
Terrible moment.
Dan Roberge
Yeah. So now the was that the electric model?
Steve Agisnaga
No. So that was manual. So the manual one is used mostly to evacuate because you can go faster right. The battery one is mostly used for places that have elevators or lifts or have basements. Elevators break all the time. And if you have somebody in a vulnerable situation, it can be somebody with a visible or, invisible disability, right? Somebody in a wheelchair is visible. But invisible can be you or I. We may have asthma, heart problems, knee surgery. What if it's a pregnant lady? There's so many things that one does not think about that if there's an emergency, how do you get them out of that building when the elevators are not working?
Dan Roberge
So this. You would recommend it even if you only have one stair set a staircase to to go right?
Steve Agisnaga
It's you. We see people with four steps. Five steps. They will purchase it because if it's somebody in a disability, you will need four people to bring down that wheelchair. Not always will you have four people, right? Right.
Dan Roberge
And so do you. Now, I know sometimes there's been, we talked about recently about a case in the U.S where there's been some lawsuits where some properties didn't have them. There was no incident yet?
Steve Agisnaga
Yeah. I'll give you one though.
Dan Roberge
Okay.
Steve Agisnaga
So actually out of New York and, there was a girl in a wheelchair. And this is the crazy part. It was a fire drill. Now, we know in the U.S you can sue for a lot of things. So there was a fire drill at the high school. They told her to wait on the second floor and her wheelchair because there was only a drill. The parents found out, sued the school board for $26 million they won for discrimination. Then, by the order of the DOJ, we got an order for one chair. And if you're wondering, a chair cost about 1500 bucks.
Dan Roberge
Wow. They could have avoided all of that. Wow. So now where do people find out about your product?
Steve Agisnaga
Yeah. So if you Google us evac chair, you'll find us everywhere online social media. Our website is evac hyphen chair dot ca. We are Canadian based. We have offices around the world. So if anyone is watching this, that's not in Canada. We have offices all over.
Dan Roberge
You ship all over.
Steve Agisnaga
All over the world.
Dan Roberge
Well, I look forward to seeing you next year across the booth and hopefully you have a great show for what's left.
Steve Agisnaga
Thank you for your time talking to you. Take care.
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