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 directed all ten of its campuses to provide evacuation chairs and individualized evacuation plans. 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?
Under the building code, residence halls are one of the few high-rise occupancies where an area of refuge is not required at the stairs. Combine that with the universal rule that elevators shut down in a fire, and a wheelchair user in a dorm can be left with no code-mandated place to go and no way down. A portable evacuation-chair program is the practical fallback — but only if the chairs are actually installed and staff know how to use them.
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 issued a March 2024 directive requiring all UC campuses to complete evacuation-accessibility checklists, designate responsible staff, develop individualized evacuation plans, and provide evacuation chairs, with a compliance deadline that summer. UC Berkeley now reports evacuation chairs at dozens of locations across campus.
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.
In March 2024, UC directed all ten campuses to provide evacuation chairs in multi-story buildings, complete accessibility checklists, designate responsible representatives, and develop individualized evacuation plans, with a compliance deadline that year.
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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