16-year-old campaigning for a change in schools after being left during a fire

Lucas Vezza-O’Brien from Denton is hoping to change the law so no other pupil is left in the same situation.

In November last year a small electrical fire broke out at Lucas’ school in Hyde.

Whilst the staff and pupils evacuated Lucas, who has cerebral palsy, had to be left in his wheelchair at a refuge point until firefighters arrived.

Lucas explained how this was a part of the school’s personal escape plan set up for him, and the refuge point has measures designed to stop the spread of smoke, but it was still a scary situation to be in.

The teen has launched the campaign #nostudentleftbehind to make sure no other pupil is in the same terrifying situation that Lucas found himself in.

He has started a petition for a change in law that would make sure every school has evacuation chairs onsite.

Lucas said: “later that night I was compelled to check the legislation of it and when I found out that that it wasn’t compulsory to have evacuation chairs in schools I was disgusted and wanted to make a change.”

Evacuation chairs are used to help people with mobility problems when a building needs to be evacuated.

A few days after starting his petition Lucas wrote a poem titled ‘Trapped in the flames’.

The bell screams loud, the smoke runs fast,

Footsteps pound as students dash past.

The fire alarm wails its desperate cry,

But here I sit, just asking why.

No ramp, no chair to help me flee,

Just stairs that laugh and imprison me.

My hands shake tight upon my wheels,

A rising fear too sharp to feel.

The halls grow thick with choking black,

Each second gone, no turning back.

My friends are safe, they made it out—

While I am left behind in doubt.

They swore this school was built for all,

Yet now I face the burning wall.

Equality, they said with pride,

But now I’m trapped, no way outside.

The world must change, it can’t be this—

That lives depend on what’s dismissed.

No one should beg to be set free,

When safety should be guaranteed.

So hear my voice through smoke and ash,

Make sure the next can make a dash.

For no one’s life should end in flame,

Because the world forgot their name.

Lucas considers himself lucky that the fire was only minor and was brought under control quickly: “I’m very lucky especially because people with my disability they have poor immune systems therefore if I breath in smoke, I don’t even want to know what would happen.”

Lucas’ family and friends have supported his campaign for: “they're all so proud, anybody you would ask well they would say that if I disagree with anything I will speak out about it.”

Lucas needs 10,000 signatures on his petition for the Government to respond, but he is hoping to get 100,000 signatures then the issue must be debated in Parliament.

Currently the petition has over 1,000 signatures. You can sign it here Every school & college to be obliged to have an evacuation chair & training - Petitions