Given that the Dakota is a very secure building, how do emergency services - the ambulance, police and fire services - gain access to the Dakota units if an emergency occurs?
The police and fire service have prescribed ways of entering a building in an emergency.
The Strata Committee has set out the following procedures to call an ambulance, should you require one, and to enable paramedics to access your unit in the event that you are unable to provide access yourself.
There are two points of access required 1) to the 2 Dakota buildings and 2) to individual units.
If you think you might require an ambulance at any time in the future please contact Sara Graham (s.dk.graham@gmail.com) who can help you to organise ambulance access to your unit In the event of an emergency. There is a notice on the notice boards outside both lifts which also describes access to the Dakota Building by Emergency Services
There is a safe box outside the Dakota building which contains a fob. This fob provides access to both wings of the Dakota and, via the lifts, to each floor of both wings. We have given the combination number of this safe box to the NSW Ambulance Service, so that by opening the safe box and accessing the fob, they can now enter our buildings and access all floors. However they can only access individual units if they have a key to your front door. You can leave that key in a safe box affixed to the side of your front door and give the Ambulance Service the number of your safe box. In this way the .
Access to Individual Units
If you would like the Ambulance Service to have access to your unit in the case of a medical emergency, and this is a sensible precaution to take particularly if you live alone, you can:
Install a safe box outside the front door of your unit to contain a key to your front door. (You can buy a small safe from The Inner West Locksmiths on Booth St opposite the Dakota Building and they will install it for you (at a small cost).
Tell Sara (the Dakota’s Ambulance Service liaison officer) you would like to register your safe box combination with the NSW Ambulance Service. Sara will give you the telephone number of the Ambulance Service.
Phone the Ambulance Service and inform the officer you speak with why you are calling and when requested, give him/her your address, (including your unit and floor numbers) and your safe box combination number.
In doing this you are enabling access to your unit by paramedics but maintaining the privacy of your combination. Only you and the Ambulance service will have your safe box combination and access to your unit.
This notice relates to the NSW Ambulance Service only. Fire and police services have their own ways of gaining access.
If you have queries or would like to register your safe box combination with the NSW Ambulance Service, please email Sara with your phone number and she will get back to you.