CODE TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
Area of Study – Emergency Use of Elevators
(July 25, 2005)
Staff Report of the 2004/05 Code Change Proposals related to the
Elevator Symposium on March 2004.
Summary report on the Workshop on Use of Elevators in Fires and Other Emergencies
From March 2 through 4, 2004 the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) sponsored a
symposium on emergency use of elevators in Atlanta, Georgia. Fellow sponsors of the event were the
International Code Council (ICC), the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST), the
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the U.S. Access Board, and the International Association
of Fire Fighters (IAFF). Authors who presented papers were from all over the world, including the
Unites States, Canada, Japan, Europe and Australia. The 120 participants included fire fighters,
elevator manufacturers, and representatives from the design and construction industries.
The workshop focused on two general topics:
1) Use of Elevators by Fire Fighters
2) Use of Elevators by Occupants During Emergencies
The three day symposium was broken into two parts. For the first part, papers were presented that dealt
with the utilization of elevators by fire fighters or other emergency personnel. The participants then
broke up into discussion groups. Each group discussed issues, goals and possible objectives to achieve
those goals. The facilitator for each group then presented the teams conclusions to the meeting as a
whole. The second part was basically a repeat of the first part, except that the papers focused on the
use of elevators by the general building occupants during emergencies. To review the papers or the
power points created for each group discussion, go to ASME’s website at www.asme.org/cns/elevators.
The papers presented covered a wide variety of topics. Issues discussed included concerns for persons
with mobility impairments, fire fighter usage of the elevator both for fire fighting purposes and for
assisted evacuation, human behavior in emergencies, studies on evacuations of high rise buildings, etc.
Some of the papers had differing viewpoints on how best to address the concerns of evacuation in high
rise buildings during different types of emergencies.
This was the first time that fire fighters and elevator manufacturers met in this type of forum. All the
discussion groups indicated that they would like to develop resolutions to the identified problems. As
a start, the Code Correlation Committee of ASME A17.1 will identify areas for proposed changes for
the elevator standard and for the model codes. Richard Kuchnicki was the ICC staff representative that
served on the steering committee that helped put this meeting together. Other staff participants at the
symposium were Kimberly Paarlberg, who acted as one of the facilitators, and Mel Cosgrove.
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Summary of the break out groups for Fire fighters use of elevators.
Fire fighters use elevators to stage to fight a fire and to assist in evacuation. When the fire fighters
enter a building, if the elevators are not in Phase I emergency recall, they may recall all of the elevators
while they evaluate the situation. The fire fighters use the elevators to move equipment and personnel
to stage two floors below the fire floor (Phase II emergency in-car operation). The fire fighters do not
use the elevators to access the fire floor - they use the stairs to access the fire floor from the staging
area. Fire fighters do not use the elevators when water or smoke is found in the elevator shaft. Options
may include protected lobbies, higher protection at elevator doors, sloped floors to keep water out,
water resistance for equipment in the elevator shaft, or pressurized shafts. Fire fighters are concerned
about the possibility of fire fighters and/or persons being evacuated becoming trapped in the elevator
when equipment fails. There is also a concern that the elevator equipment room will stay protected
during the fire event. The fire departments did not want shunt trip breakers in the shaft or sprinklers in
the shaft or in the elevator machine room. Older building should be retrofit for automatic recall for
elevators (This is addressed in IFC 607.1).
Summary of the break out groups for Elevators used as Emergency means of egress.
Evacuation plans must include considerations for evacuation of everyone. Per NIST reports, persons
requiring evacuation assistance may be as high as 7% to 10% of the population. Information between
the people being evacuated, both able bodied and those needing assistance, and the fire department is
key. This could involve signage, retraining, wardens or interactive information between the lobbies
and the fire command station. Persons may self-evacuate during an emergency as long as the elevators
have not entered Phase I emergency recall. Remote control of the elevator from the fire command
station may facilitate evacuation. Many options for elevator prioritization and control with respect to
occupant evacuation were discussed.
It was noted that if the elevator was to be used as part of the evacuation system, it was not the intent to
allow one elevator and one stairway in a building that required two means of egress - it must be clear
that two stairways are always required. At least one stair should be immediately available from the
elevator lobby. If the lobby is intended to protect occupants, then a minimum size is required. [Options
proposed were 3 sq.ft. for 25% of the occupant load for the floor and 30"x48" wheelchair space for
every 50 occupants of the floor (NFPA 5000 code change proposal); and 3 sq.ft. for the entire occupant
load of the floor. - See IBC code changes G61-04/05]. Decisions on the lobby must be coordinated
with the fire fighter recommendations.
While not part of the elevator considerations, there were discussions about ‘hard’ stairways and
stairways wide enough for two way travel.
Follow up meetings There were three follow up meetings in Boston, MA, on October 12-14, 2004, February 23-25, 2005
and May 24-26, 2005. Staff participation for ICC included Beth Tubbs, Mel Cosgrove and Kimberly
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Paarlberg. At the first meeting, there was discussion and finalization of the recommendations that
came from the original task groups. Each task group discussed priority levels for each
recommendation.
In the second and third meeting the task groups worked on development of hazard assessment for the
recommendations. A power point presentation was given to explain a hazard analysis to the committee
and included the following: A hazard is a potential source or harm. A hazard assessment is a
systematic process for identifying and reducing potential causes of harm. The assessment is a tool to
develop essential safety requirements and prescriptive code requirements. The assessment identifies
hazards, cause/trigger and incident/effect. Part of the process is for the team to decide, based on
experience, whether a particular hazard should be further mitigated and when it has been sufficiently
mitigated. If the hazard has not been sufficiently mitigated, any corrective actions and residual hazards
are determined.
For example:
Hazard
Cause/Trigger
Incident/Effect
Corrective
Action
Residual Hazard
Large gap
between elevator
landing swing
door and car
door. Child at
entrance.
Door swings
shut, child
trapped between
doors. Elevator
responds to hall
call.
Child is injured.
Reduce space
sufficiently to
avoid
entrapment.
None
This is different from a risk analysis because it does not require assignment of severity and probability.
Different committee members are preparing portions of the hazard analysis for review by the whole
committee during upcoming sessions. The next meeting will be Sept. 7-9, 2005. It is assumed that due
to the level of detail involved in this process that completion of the hazard analysis will be an ongoing
process for at least two years.
The committee is starting the analysis with fire events in highrise buildings (i.e. 75' or higher). While
NIST has stated in their final report that buildings should not be required to be designed to resist
terrorist attacks, there will be consideration of other types of emergencies that will require building
evacuation.
Other activities Members of the A17.1 Code Coordination Committee has sponsored code change proposals to ICC,
NFPA and A17.1 based on recommendations from the original meeting. ICC representatives on this
committee are Greg Gress and Kimberly Paarlberg. Following this report are all code change proposals
made to the ICC codes that deal with elevators. The code changes for this code change cycle are
mostly a preliminary set up for a larger package at a later code change cycle. It is anticipated that with
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the final NIST reports and the completion of the hazard analysis that more extensive code change
proposals will be developed over the next several years. The A17.1 Code Coordination Committee is
interested in working in conjunction with the ICC Code Technology Committee on this issue.
The following appeared in ASME C and S Newsletter - July 2005
NIST CALLS ON SDO's TO MAKE CHANGES TO IMPROVE THE SAFETY OF TALL
BUILDINGS, THEIR OCCUPANTS AND FIRST RESPONDERS
On June 23, 2005, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) held a public hearing, at
which time presented the draft recommendations from its building and fire investigation of the
collapses of the World Trade Center towers following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The
recommendations seek improvements in the way people design, construct, maintain, and use buildings
to increase building, occupant, and emergency responder safety. The recommendations, along with a
complete set of draft WTC towers investigation reports, have been released for a six-week public
comment period and are available at http://wtc.nist.gov/
ASME is one of the organizations that have been assisting NIST in its investigation. The NIST
recommendations include suggestions for improvements to building and fire codes. The Committee on
Elevators and Escalators, ASME A17, has already established two Task Groups that are considering
possible revisions to the A17.1 Elevator Code in the areas of use of elevators by firefighters and use of
elevators for occupant egress. For more information on the NIST report, you may contact Geraldine
Burdeshaw at mailto:burdeshawg@asmestaff.org
Additional information required by members of the CTC.
If the Code Technologies Committee members have any additional information that they need on the
original symposium or hazard analysis progress, please contact Kim Paarlberg, 888-ICC-SAFE, Ext.
4306 or kpaarlberg@iccsafe.org.
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