The Indian elevator market is expected at 50,000-55,000 units yearly & an installed base of a quarter of a million. It is valued at about Rs 10,000 crore. It is expected to grow more in the coming years. With increasing demand comes the need for guidelines. While the trend is changing the cityscape and making it more impressive, it also brings with it share challenges, which include the failure of the fire lifts during fire accidents in high-rise buildings. It is evident that during fire accidents, evacuation in multi-storey buildings is the main challenge. To control such situations, the most recent launch in the elevator space was Fire Evacuation Lift. A fire evacuation lift is designed to meet the demands of a rescue mission and complete it in record time.

The fire evacuation lift is called by many names like vertical fire brigade and PPE (public protective equipment). The fire Evacuation Lift is an elevator that reaches higher floors faster, making it convenient for the fire brigade team to douse the fire on time and save people’s lives and assets.

The Fire Evacuation Lift is designed with well-advanced technologies like IoT (Internet of things), so when a fire breaks out in the building, a mass notification will be sent to the building tenants, fire safety system team/security team, lift operator, and the nearest fire brigade office. Also, users and OEMs shall be able to access real-time data like total operating hours, day-wise operating hours, fault history, etc.

It is designed as per fire lift standards; the cabin is made of non-combustible material, and all side-enclosed panels are filled with ceramic wool for a 2 hr. fire rating. A trap door is provided on the roof for the emergency exit, whereas the ordinary fire lifts have no provision for a trap door, and no vision panel is included. Most importantly in such life-threatening situations, a person standing on any floor can communicate with the lift operator because of its two-way communication system. The notable part is the fire evacuation lift has 30 minutes battery backup in case of power failure, unlike other ordinary fire lifts.

The fire Evacuation Lift is designed with well-advanced technologies. It has a two-way communication system, auto-functional fire alarm, auto-functional fire emergency message, customized automatic doors, and is equipped with IoT. The lift has a high-efficiency Gearless traction machine that reduces energy consumption.  

Apart from exhibiting efficiency at a high level, the fire evacuation lift can also be customized to match the design of an existing or new high-rise building. In almost 3 minutes Fire Evacuation Lift could evacuate 10-18 people, and ERT could reach the 40th floor in a minute to douse the Fire and save lives and assets. It has a base visual option- a screen on G Floor for firemen to see floor-wise images & also the cabin. Thus, serving in saving Occupants’ Lives, Assets & Assisting Firemen in Timely Fire Fighting & Evacuation; the golden period plan is to install Fire Evacuation Lift as per Maharashtra’s Energy Department circular in every high-rise building.

The builders and developers have to install fire evacuation lifts in new high-rise buildings having heights above 70 meters before we lose more human lives. It was a visionary step and effort taken by the Maharashtra Energy Department and by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai in planning safer infrastructure. 

(Dr. Vikram Mehta, is managing director of Spartan Fire Evacuation Lift), views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not represent the views of SquareFeatIndia

Also Read: PROVISION OF FIRE EVACUATION LIFT TO RESCUE PEOPLE ON TIME DURING FIRE EMERGENCIES

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By Varun Singh

In the recent past, Mumbai and other mega cities have witnessed many fire incidents. Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) recently stated, the financial capital has witnessed more than 26,000 fire incidents in the past five years. The report also specifies that 324 fires were reported in the city’s high-rises alone, between January 2020 and October 2021 period. In all such incidents the number of casualties and loss of lives are significant for the growing demand by the fire expert to have fire evacuation infrastructure. In a city like Mumbai, it is necessary to have the right combating tool for the timely evacuation. As the Fire service day is nearing, the fire experts have highlighted the need of implementing the provision of Fire Evacuation Lift made by the fire brigade and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC in 2018.

Fire experts point out the city’s unique challenges during fire accidents; include factors like evacuation time, distance, access to fire department, fire control, and residents traffic management.  Take the recent case of the fire accident in Mumbai’s high-rise buildings; it was evident that there was an urgent need for alternate escape paths. To prevent such fire explosions in the future, a customized fire evacuation lift could be an answer to the alternative escape path for a timely and safer evacuation system in the buildings.

After many incidents of fire in the recent past in Mumbai, fire experts see the need of the hour is timely evacuation to save the firefighters and lives of people. High-Rise building Evacuation could be the theme of Fire Service Week 2022. The fire experts further insisted that the only motto of this Fire Service Week could be high-rise evacuation and it also needs to be backed up by training and educating the residents of a high-rise about the protocols that need to be followed during a crisis caused by fire. Our Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC and Mumbai Fire Brigade department have already made it mandatory in 2018 to have a provision of a Fire Evacuation Lift for all the buildings with a height above 70 meters (around 22 floors). What we need right now, is awareness and implementation of those provisions for the timely evacuation of people.

Dr Vikram Mehta, Managing Director of Spartan Engineering Industries said, “Time is of the essence when fighting fires. Evacuation time is critical when a fire incident happens in high-rise buildings as a small flame can turn into a blazing fire in incidents. We take the Fire Service Week to tribute those brave firefighters who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty during the fire and massive explosion at Mumbai dockyard. The best way to commemorate this day is to make sure of the safety of all the firefighters who risk their lives to save us. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach to develop practical interventions to increase the use of Fire Evacuation Lifts is the best way to serve our saviors. It will make the life safer for firefighter and for the people.“  

The city needs to ensure implementation of an advanced fire evacuation lift before we lose more human lives and an effort in planning safer infrastructure.

Also Read: How is the Fireman Evacuation Lift being relevant to the Real Estate Industry?

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The significantly higher number of fire incidents has raised the questions of fire safety in our country. With the economical growth, the infrastructure of the country is changing. Infrastructure of the cities like Mumbai, New Delhi is developing, but the question of people’s safety remains the same especially for fire evacuation in high-rise. As the Mumbai Fire Brigade recently stated, Mumbai alone has witnessed more than 48,434 small and major fire incidents since 2008 to 2018. Citing Global Diseases report published in the BMJ Injury Prevention Journal, a news report claimed that India recorded around 27 thousand of the 1.2 lakh deaths reported globally in 20177 due to fire accidents. As per this report, India accounts for 17% of the Global fire accidents. Considering the need of safely evacuation civic bodies like Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have made provision of Fire Evacuation Lift in building having height more than 70 Mtrs.

Fireman Evacuation Lift is considered to be a new PPE ‘Public Protection Equipment’ that reaches on time to evacuate on time and thus saves lives and assets. It is the primary responsibility of the officials and developers of the country to take necessary steps required for safety of life and property from fire hazards in residential and commercial buildings. This is an era where high-risk comes with high-price. We are paying high price to live in the high-rise buildings, meantime we miss on the safety of our lives. That’s the reason national building code states that building should have an external evacuation system for the safety of lives and assets. 

The Fire Evacuation Lift is designed with well advanced technologies like IoT. If fire happens in the building it would send mass messaging to buildingtenants, fire safety system team/security team, lift operator and near by Fire brigade office. Fire Evacuation Lift helps firemen to reach fire affectedfloor safely in minimum time. It carries rapid evacuation of people of all ages and abilities. Fire evacuation lift is designed as per fire lift standards, the cabin is made of non-combustible material and all side enclose panels are filled with ceramic wool with 2 hr. fire rating. Trap door is provided on the roof for emergency exit, wherein the ordinary fire lifts has no provision of trap door and no vision panel is included. Most importantly in such life threatening situations person standing at any floor can communicate with lift operator because of its two-way communication system. Fire Evacuation Lift has 15-30 minutes battery backup in case of power failure. Other mentioned evacuation devices like Fire Chute doesn’t have any particular standards like Lowering Devices, Ascending descending devices. If we look at the past fire incidents, Fire Chute are not feasible to evacuate all ages of people, physically challenge people or Firemen to reach on the affected area from ground floor. 

Firemen Evacuation Lift is necessary in the high-rise buildings to avoid such fire incidents and to make the living happier in the high-rises. In almost 3 minutes Firemen Evacuation Lift could evacuate 10-18 people and ERT could reach on 40^th floor almost in 1 minute to douse the Fire and save lives and assets. Looking at the current incidents none of the fire devices can evacuate the building on time and can save the loss of the property. During fire incidents if Firemen will reach on time to evacuate the people and to douse the fire then there will be no such loss of people lives and their assets. To control the fire, we need such combating tool that can save our savior ‘FIREMEN’. Thus, serving in saving Occupants Lives, Assets & Assisting Firemen in Timely Fire Fighting & Evacuation golden period plan is to install Firemen Evacuation Lift in every high-rise building. The notable part is Fire Evacuation Lift can evacuate almost 100 lives in 20 minutes.

About the Author: Dr. Vikram Mehta is the Managing Director, SPARTAN Engineering Industries Pvt. Ltd.

Note: Views expressed in this article solely belong to the author and do not represent that of SquareFeatIndia.

Also Read: Rising Fire Incidents & the Need for a Right Combating Tool

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