1 year ago

Fire evacuation lifts mandatory in high rise buildings in Maharashtra
Presentation Made In The Interest Of Public,
Under Safety Awareness Programme
By @Escon Elevators www.esconelevators.com
18002677901

Fire evacuation lifts are special elevators that are designed to be fire resistant for at least 2 hours and are present in a different corridor of the building that is away from the occupied space. While residents and occupants shouldn’t use the existing lifts in case of a fire incident, fire evacuation lifts are of great use as evacuation can be done faster.

Stricter Norms Of Mumbai’s 368 buildings, only 13 high rises currently have FELs installed, even after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) issued a notification in the year 2018 mandating FEL installations.

The directive comes in order to speed up the evacuation process during emergencies and fire incidents in the buildings.

Agreeing with the circular, Harrish Jain, vice president, Brihan mumbai Developers Association says, “The advisory that fire evacuation lifts are mandatory in highrises of 70 meters and above is a welcome and a long pending move. This strengthens the security of tenants and ensures a basic safety measure that the developers have to pay attention to. By making it mandatory, safety and evacuation of residents will rightly take the first priority.”

After many incidents of fire in the recent past in Mumbai, there is an increasing need for proper fire safety and fire evacuation system in place in high-rise buildings. According to Mumbai Fire Brigade, Mumbai has witnessed more than 48,434 small and major fire incidents from 2008 to 2018, of which 1,568 were reported in Mumbai’s high-rises since 2008 and sabotaging 8,737 residential buildings and about 3,833 commercial buildings. During major fire incidents in high-rises, evacuation of people is a major cause of concern. This mandate will have a retrospective effect as those buildings constructed between 2018 and 2022 will also have to install a fire evacuation lift with specifications issued by the fire department.

Sources: https://housing.com/news/fire-evacuation-lifts-mandatory-in-high-rise-buildings-inmaharashtra/amp/

An official circular dated July 20, 2022, DJ Khonde, chief electrical inspector Industries, Energy and Labour department, said, “One of the key aspects of the fire evacuation strategy is to ensure that during an evacuation process, the lift would collect the residents living in higher floors first and bring them to an exit level. Even the lifts should be programmed in a way to cover the longest distance first, ” “This is advisory at the moment, but a law will soon come that will be approved by the government. In Mumbai, it is already a requirement, and this advisory is next to be mandatory. Also, this will have a retrospective effect as those buildings constructed between 2018 to 2022 will have to have a fire evacuation lift with specifications issued by us. And those who have not installed such lifts will now have to install such lifts. In the end, it is for the safety of citizens,” said a senior official from the state energy department.

Sources: https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/mumbai-news/statemandates-installing-fire-evacuation-lifts-in-all-highrises101658515775021.html

What a fire evacuation lift offers:

Faster rescue & evacuation time

Safer & faster, especially for seniors, children, the disabled & pets

Through IoT (Internet of Things), automatic notifications to occupants and fire brigade in emergencies

Equipped with fire-fighting equipment like fire blankets, extinguishers, first-aid kits

Gearless traction machine

Reduces carry load of firemen and rescue team

Reduces fatigue

Different power source

Real-time data access

Two-way communication, so firemen can communicate from any floor with the lift operator