Feedback on Fire Service Access Elevators?

7/9/2021

Requirements and guidance around Fire Service Access Elevators came into the IBC after 9/11.

Do any fire department or other code officials have experience in seeing these be helpful or lead to increased fire fighting capabilities?

I have not heard of any fire incidents where they've been beneficial and they're going in more often now - just would love to hear if they've been in use.

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5 Comments

schulman

7/9/2021 09:12:04 am

curious why the question ... you are just making the elevators that you are putting in already, function as FSAE's ...
seems like the question suggests that these need to be "separate" from the "public elevators" which is not how I read the code ...

breaking the bank to add the functionality ?
am I missing a bigger issue ?
suddenly I am curious ....

MattC

7/9/2021 11:05:18 am

If this is a term that's used interchangeably in Canada as a Firefighter Elevator then yes, it is 100% used during firefighting operations. The exception being if the fire floor was close enough to ground that using it is not feasible.

Most FDs have a procedure there they only take the elevator 1-2 floors below the fire floor, so if the fire event is on the second floor the elevator wouldn't see much action.

It's usually only required in high buildings though.

And also, to reiterate - this would not be an additional elevator that is installed, it would simply be additional functionality attributed to at least one elevator car, with requirements for operation on emergency power, etc.

Hope this helps!

Mark Bagniewski

7/10/2021 09:51:50 am

As both an FPE and Career FD Lieutenant, I have personally seen and heard these elevators assist in not only high rise fires, but also medical emergency's.

As Matt C stated, most departments have a procedure where a Firefighter is stationed in the elevator and will shuttle personnel and equipment to a few floors below the fire floor. Normally, a floor below the fire is used for staging, and two floors below is used for a FF rehab area, so members do not have to come all the way back down for a rest.

For elevator emergencies, such as a stuck elevator, the FD elevator key, Phase 1 has been known to almost "reset" the stuck elevator and bring it down to its designated floor and free trapped victims.

As for medical emergency's, my crew has used the FD elevator key to "claim dips" on an elevator during CPR or stroke calls in senior housing buildings where it might take a while to get an empty elevator back when we are trying to move a patient from an upper floor to an ambulance. In these medical calls where time is of the essence, this tactic has shaved minutes off waiting for an elevator to get a person to a hospital.

Unfortunately, this code is not one of the "Sexy" FPE codes like standpipes or sprinklers, so I wouldn't expect anyone to be writing an article about how the fire service access elevators assisted in extinguishing a high rise fire. But just know that this feature is absolutely being used everyday, by an emergency responder somewhere for the benefit of the public.

Casey Milhorn

7/12/2021 11:25:05 am

Thank you Mark for that education. Definitely learned something new about FD tactics using elevators.

Sagiv Weiss-Ishai link

7/20/2021 10:29:58 pm

FSAEs were first required in the 2009 edition of the IBC Section 403.6 for all high-rise buildings over 120 feet. At that time only one FSAE was required with 3,500lb capacity, serving all floors and sized to accommodate an ambulance stretcher per Section 3002. This was just a standard electric passenger elevator (cannot be hydraulic and cannot be freight) which was required to serve all floors of the building. This elevator could have a simplex operation or be a part of a group automatic operation and it required significant building protection around the hoistway and the FSAE car per IBC Section 3007. The building protection features included: large lobbies (150SF in size with a minimum 8 feet dimension), protection of the hoistway and lobbies from Smoke, Heat, Fire and Water, hoistway lights activated upon fire service activation, survivability of pathways of control wires and a monitoring system to monitor the smoke and temperature conditions in the FSAE lobbies and EMR/ECR

This one traction FSAE was just a regular passenger elevator or a service passenger elevator which could be used by the building occupants during the normal operation of the building.

During fire and non-fire emergencies, the trained firefighters had the ability to choose this elevator for their firefighting emergency operation using Phase II in-car emergency operation. The responding firefighters had available information about the lobbies and EMR/ECR from the FCC and they could make a decision if they want to use this elevator or not to conduct their emergency firefighting and rescue operation. This one elevator had a much greater level of protection than all other elevators in the building and the firefighters were trained to select this specific elevator which was identified with a Fire Helmet symbol on the hoistway door jambs of the FSAE car.

Within the following 4 Code cycles of the IBC (2012, 2015, 2018 and 2021) another FSAE was added and since the 2012 IBC - TWO FSAEs are required in each high-rise building over 120 feet. This additional FSAE was required for redundancy (in case the other FSAE was out of service or on inspection, etc.) but not for additional firefighting operation. Both FSAEs are required to be sized to accommodate an ambulance stretcher per Section 3002 and both are required to have 3,500lb capacity.

There are many other requirements included in the IBC regarding these elevators however, no requirements are included for FSAEs in the A17.1/B44 Elevator Safety Code (current edition is 2019).

The new 2022 edition of the A17.1/B44 will include provisions for the FSAE controllers to provide a signal to the building electrical system to activate the FSAE hoistway lights upon Elevator Fire Service (FEO) activation.

Significant changes are included in the 2021 edition of the IBC and detailed information about the FSAE Lobbies EMR/ECR temperature monitoring system via the building FA system is included in the 2019 edition of NFPA 72 Section 21.5 and A.21.5.

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