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.
In September 2023, UC Berkeley graduate student Ryan Manriquez, who uses a power wheelchair, was trapped in his second-floor campus apartment during a fire alarm because the elevator — his only way out — automatically shut down. He waited about four hours. He had asked the university for an evacuation chair months earlier; it hadn't been installed. The alarm turned out to be false, and no one was hurt. But after he testified to the UC Board of Regents, the University of California asked all ten of its campuses to complete an evacuation-accessibility checklist — individualized evacuation plans, named responsible staff, and a minimum of one evacuation chair in every multi-story housing building. It's a rare, clear look at a near-miss doing what tragedies usually have to: forcing the system to change before someone dies.
What happened at UC Berkeley?
Ryan Manriquez, a graduate public-policy student, lived in campus housing. When a fire alarm sounded in September 2023, the building's elevators automatically shut down, as they're designed to do in a fire. For a power-wheelchair user on the second floor, that removed the only usable exit. He described stepping into the hallway and realizing he had no safe way out.
He waited roughly four hours until the elevator worked again. Crucially, he had requested an evacuation chair from campus housing months before; it had not yet been installed. The alarm was false — but the gap it exposed was not.
Why are dorms and campus buildings a particular blind spot?
Two code provisions remove the alternatives, and the exemption is broader than most people realise. California Building Code section 1009.3.3 does not require an area of refuge at the stairway in Group R-2 residential occupancies — which covers residence halls — and it also exempts any building equipped throughout with an automatic sprinkler system, which covers most academic buildings. Separately, elevators are recalled to a designated level on a fire alarm under ASME A17.1 and held there under firefighter control. So a wheelchair user can be left with no elevator and no code-required refuge. A portable evacuation-chair programme is the practical fallback — but only if the chairs are installed, the staff are named, and somebody can produce the training record.
Manriquez's case also shows the human cost of a request that sits in a queue. The equipment had been asked for. The plan just hadn't caught up to the person who needed it.
What changed across the University of California?
After Manriquez spoke to the Regents, UC President Michael Drake wrote to the Chancellors on March 19, 2024, attaching an Emergency Preparedness and Evacuation Checklist and asking each campus to designate a responsible representative and complete it by June 30, 2024. Its force is worth stating precisely, because it is often described as a mandate: the letter says I am requesting, and the chair section is captioned Where Provided. One item is unconditional — a minimum of one evacuation chair per multi-story building in campus housing. The rest covers high-traffic buildings, chairs on request, and the records that prove a programme exists: training, maintenance, and a list of every chair by building, floor and stairwell.
The lesson for any campus — or any facility — is that a disability-egress program is not just buying equipment. It's installation, assignment, training, and a plan that reaches the specific person who raised their hand.
- ›Treat every accommodation request as a countdown, not a ticket — an evacuation chair that's approved but not installed is the exact gap that failed here.
- ›Map your residence halls and high-traffic buildings: which have areas of refuge, and which rely entirely on a portable chair program?
- ›Build individualized evacuation plans for students and staff who need them, and make sure the responsible person is named.
- ›Document your program annually — for many campuses this is also a Clery Act expectation to test and disclose emergency procedures.
- ›Ask your disability-services office what they'd do tonight if the elevators went down. If the answer is uncertain, that's your starting point.
Questions professionals ask
No federal rule names evacuation chairs, but public universities have duties under ADA Title II and Section 504 to make emergency evacuation accessible, and the Clery Act requires testing and disclosing emergency procedures. Many campuses use evacuation chairs as the practical way to meet those obligations in buildings without areas of refuge.
Elevators are recalled and taken out of normal service during a fire so they can't deliver occupants to a fire floor or trap them between floors. That's a life-safety feature — but it's exactly why anyone who can't use the stairs needs an assisted-egress plan.
A letter from UC President Michael Drake dated March 19, 2024 requested that each campus designate a responsible representative and complete an attached Emergency Preparedness and Evacuation Checklist by June 30, 2024. The checklist requires a minimum of one evacuation chair per multi-story building in campus housing, a minimum of one in high-traffic multi-story buildings, chairs on request, and maintained records of chair locations, operator training and maintenance.
- CalMatters — California's disabled students left behind in emergencies
- UC Berkeley — Emergency Evacuation Preparedness Policy
- Letter from UC President Michael V. Drake to Chancellors, March 19, 2024, with the Emergency Preparedness & Evacuation Checklist
- UC Board of Regents — Discussion Item A2, March 19, 2025 (compliance scoring)
We publish these case studies for one reason: so the next facility doesn't repeat them. Everything here is drawn from primary investigations and public records, told with respect for the people involved. Last updated August 4, 2026.
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