FIRE, SECURITY & SAFETY
Fire safety: regulations and obligations for lifts
The biggest improvements in buildings safety in nearly 40 years are in the Buildings Safety Act. This has major implications for the installation, management and maintenance of lifts in new and older buildings. Nick Mellor, managing director of LEIA and LIFTEX 2022 outlines the developments to be aware of, responsibilities for checking fire lifts and guidance on identifying types of lifts
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Building Safety Act is primary legislation with very many pieces of more detailed
secondary legislation to be published. Together,
these will fundamentally change the regulatory framework with the aim of driving real culture change and the right behaviours as called for by Dame Judith Hackitt. Primarily concerned with higher-risk residential buildings, the Buildings Safety Act focuses on the building design and ongoing safety for in-scope buildings. The Act establishes a new Building Safety Regulator (BSR) within the HSE which will be responsible not only for enforcing the new regulatory regime for high-rise buildings in scope but will also oversee the safety and performance of all buildings. This starts with the supply chain as Dame Judith Hackitt observed: “Payment terms within contracts (for example, retentions) can drive poor behaviours, by putting financial strain into the supply chain. For example, non-payment of invoices and consequent cash flow issues can cause subcontractors to substitute materials purely on price rather than value for money or suitability for purpose”.
The Act aims to improve the consistency and oversight throughout the entire supply chain process to improve safety, creating a ‘golden thread’ of information (which forms a digital record). This thread should then flow from the initial design right through to construction and to the occupation and management of buildings.
Changes in fire safety regulations
One of the pieces of legislation which is amended by the Act is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO). The FSO applies to all non-domestic premises in England and in Wales including workplaces and the common parts of buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises. The FSO already requires equipment for evacuation and
firefighting to be maintained (including lifts for the evacuation of disabled people and for use by the fire and rescue services). The amendments will strengthen
the requirements around the responsible person’s fire risk assessment and the competence of those undertaking and reviewing fire risk assessments. Over many years, British Standards have specified several types of lifts for use in the event of fire with older types not required to have levels of protection comparable with modern lifts. Hence, we anticipate many responsible persons will request their lifts to be checked to ascertain their type.
Identifying your building’s existing lifts
The identification of the specific type and checking the detailed features and operation of the lift, is a specialist activity which should be undertaken only by competent lift personnel. This identification is likely to be an important element in classifying the type of lift as part of the buildings responsible person’s fire risk assessment.
Lift operation in the event of fire falls into three categories, covered by different British Standards:
1. Lifts intended for fire service use include at least three different type: firefighters lifts to BS EN 81-72, fire-fighting lifts to BS 5588-5 and older firemen’s lifts;
2. Lifts used for evacuation of disabled people;
3. Lifts which are neither intended for use by firefighters nor for evacuation which are simply removed from service from a fire alarm signal or recall switch.
Other, especially older, lifts may not have any of these operational features. There may also be bespoke lift solutions, especially for evacuation, where other solutions have been specified and approvals obtained.
Evacuation lifts
The Building Safety Act (and its many far-reaching implications), has an amendment that will require the Building Safety Regulator to look at emergency egress of disabled persons and what further provision in the Building Regulations or guidance may be made. Many will be disappointed with the three-year time limit for this work as work is already ongoing in this area. By the time the Building Safety Regulator undertakes this work, it should be able to benefit from a number of pieces of work including the London Plan policy D5(B5) requiring at least one of a core of lifts to be an evacuation lift to be used to evacuate people who require level access from the building. Although the usual approach for “standard” lifts is “in the event of fire do not use the lift”, a lift suitably designed and protected by the building can be used for evacuation of disabled people as described in BS 9999:2017 Annex G. This specification of evacuation lift is designed for a driver to take control of the lift to evacuate those waiting in refuges. Elsewhere, an
20 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER JUNE 2022
automatic evacuation operation has been proposed - this could be useful in cases where a rescue team (including a driver to take control of an evacuation lift) is not available or would have a long mobilisation time. There is work ongoing on standards that would provide options of automatic evacuation lifts in addition to the current BS 9999 model of a driver- controlled lift evacuation. Where a rescue team would not be available, and subject to suitable building design measures, an automatic evacuation operation could allow the early self- evacuation by those who need it.
Upcoming changes to British Standards
At the time of press, the supporting fire safety and evacuation lift guidance for the London Plan is under consultation. For relevant standards for evacuation lifts, this refers to: “BS EN 81-76 when/ if published as a designated standard, BS 9991, BS 9999”. EN 81-76 is a European standard under development for evacuation lifts which if approved is expected to be published in 2024. Until then the London Plan guidance points to the recommendations in BS 9991 and BS 9999 for evacuation lifts. BS 9991:2015; Fire safety in the design, management and use of residential buildings is being revised while BS 9999:2017; Fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings includes the only current description of an evacuation lift in Annex G.
LIFTEX 2022, taking place from 12 – 13 October 2022 at ExCeL, London, will feature the latest lift technology and solutions. Its free seminar programme will address key standards and changes architects need to be aware of including The Buildings Safety Bill.
www.liftexshow.com
Read the latest at:
www.bsee.co.uk
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