Exit strategy

With changes to UK fire legislation placing new responsibilities on owners and operators of buildings, the first presentation at the Fire and Risk Management conference was timely. Roger Greet, a UK fire consultant, talked about how building operators must now carry out a fire risk assessment and prepare the necessary evacuation and fire access requirements.

They now have to appoint a “responsible person”. Considering the wide range of building types, and the varying competence and awareness of their owners, only time will tell whether this is the best approach.

Pierre Bianchini, convenor of the CEN/TC10 lift committees, responsible for writing all the European lift standards, was next. He discussed the conflict between the Construction Products Directive and the Lift Directive regarding the fire rating of lift landing doors. He concluded there was no conflict between a fire-rated door and a lift landing fire-rated door. Maybe UK building control officers should be told this.

Next up was US fire chief Eugene Doherty from a Boston fire station, who talked about the lessons of 9/11. He believes lifts must be used to effect rapid evacuation of able and non-able-bodied people from high-rise buildings.

Doherty thinks two US National Institute of Standards and Technology recommendations are worth considering. It says the full range of current and next-generation evacuation technologies should be evaluated for future use, including protected or hardened elevators, exterior escape devices and stairwell descent devices. These may allow all occupants an equal opportunity for evacuation.

The installation of such elevators is also recommended by NIST to improve emergency response activities in tall buildings. These can allow access for firefighters, and the evacuation of mobility-impaired occupants. NIST wants designers to build in extra robustness so lifts can withstand a fire, and to enable them to operate for a period of time during evacuation. This robustness would include alternative power supplies, additional control and communication systems and added fire resistance.

After-lunch speech

Following lunch, the convenors of the CEN and ISO working groups, Derek Smith from the UK and Jean-Pierre Vestri from France, explained the European approach to using lifts in the event of fire. Smith pointed out that fire-fighting lifts built in compliance with BS5588-5, which are designed for fire service, have been in use in the UK for 10 years, and lifts built to EN81-72 in Europe since 2003. For evacuation lifts, the UK has had a standard since 1988, whereas Europe does not. Europe appears well prepared for fighting fires in tall buildings, but not for evacuating people from them.

Smoke is usually the killer in fires, not flames. Professor Ermer of Mistral in Switzerland showed a film of simulated smoke spread and gave a fascinating demonstration with real smoke moving through a building model on stage. He described methods to reduce smoke movement by pressurisation techniques, using fans in affected areas, and the role this can play in facilitating the evacuation of buildings by keeping exists free of smoke.

The last speaker was James Fortune, a US-based consultant, whose topic was fire and evacuation in Asia and the Gulf States. His main contention was that all lifts installed to US codes can be classified as fire-fighting lifts. He claims the European approach, using the EN81-72 standard with its 630 kg lifts, employs lifts that are too small to be useful. Apparently, all US firefighters are male and carry all their equipment with them rather than call for it when needed, and thus they are rather bulky.

However, he chose to ignore the European building requirement for fire compartments. These do not appear to be present in the US code, and reduce the spread of flame.

“In case of fire, do not use the lifts” remains an important instruction and must be obeyed. However, it may be that one day this will be reversed and lifts will be used in an emergency to evacuate a building safely.