Elevators

This is one area of training where there is not much done with hands-on work. We will start out with 2 phases of training:

Tactical use of elevators at an incident
Rescue operations from an elevator

Rescue training will need to occur at some point by an outside trainer so for now we will address only the tactical use of elevators.

So just to start us off, let's look at a short video of how the fire department keys should be used in a modern elevator.

The next step will be to discover every building in the town that uses elevators and then plan some time to review each one of them to determine what type they are and to view the service equipment utilized so we know where the equipment rooms are located and a general idea on how they all work.

Elevator Keys

Elevator keys for the fire department should be stored in the Knox Box for all buildings so equiped or with the on-site building manager.

. . . and now for the training portion

The town of Greenport does not have any high-rise buildings but it does have buildings served by elevators. For the sake of simplicity, elevators can be divided into two major types - hydraulic and traction.

Hydraulic elevators are limited to use in buildings that are six floors or less in height. Buildings higher than six floors will use electric traction elevator with an equipment room generally located in a penthouse on the roof or two floors above the highest floor served in skyscrapers. The type of elevator is important to know when involved in rescue operations for victims trapped in an inoperable elevator. Otherwise fire department operations in a building containing an elevator will be similar for both types of elevator except that we should know where the elevator equipment room and controls are located in relation to where a fire is located within the building. When we do elect to use elevators in a high-rise building, we need to take them at least two floors below the reported fire floor.

The hoist way door (the one we see in the lobby area) has a class B fire rating and is supposed to protect the hoist way from fire for one and one half hours (the shaft that the elevator runs). This fire rating means the door will resist the passage of fire for one and one half hour. This does not necessarily mean that the hoist way door will stop the spread of smoke.

The natural characteristics of the elevator shaft's hoist way make it a veritable chimney. We can get a significant amount of smoke moving up into the penthouse or elevator machine room at the top of the shaft. This may cause the elevator to have a malfunction as well as contaminate this room and perhaps the entire floor. This contaminated floor may be significantly remote from the floor containing original fire.

Firefighters' Emergency Operation for Elevators

Building Code of New York State requires elevators to be provided with Phase 1 Emergency Recall Operation and Phase 2 Emergency In-Car Operation in accordance with ASME A17.1, so let's look at these two phases.

The following are examples of the many signs that may be placed near or in an elevator:

PHASE 1

Phase 1 is the recall operation of the elevator and may be initiated by:

a fire alarm initiating device (FAID) in the elevator lobby, machine room or top of the hoist way when required, or
manual operation of the three-position key switch located next to the hoist way door at the designated level.

The designated level could be the main floor lobby or other floor level that best serves the needs of emergency personnel for firefighting or rescue purposes identified by the building code or fire authority unless a smoke detector head has activated on the designated floor in which case the elevators then go to an alternate floor.

The key switch in the lobby should have three selections on it; Off, On and Bypass. It should be on the Off selection for normal use. The company places the key into the slot and turns it to the On selection placing the elevators into Phase I recall. This should do a couple of things:

Recall all the elevators to the designated floor. (The only time(s) that this will not happen is if a mechanic is on the top using the car top control or the car has answered a call to the fire floor and the doors have opened and are stuck in the open position.)
The electronic eyes and the emergency stop button are disabled.
All cars come to the designated floor, the doors open and the occupants are allowed to exit.
The cars that have phase 2 recall inside them will allow the doors will stay open, if not the doors typically close in about 60 seconds.

When Phase 1 is initiated;

All cars traveling away from the designated level will stop at or before the next available landing and reverse direction without opening their doors.
All cars standing at a floor will immediately close their doors and return to the recall floor.
Door reopening devices, smoke or flame sensitive devices also become inoperative. Door reopening devices not sensitive to smoke or flame (e.g., mechanically actuated devices) are permitted to remain operative.
An illuminated visual and audible signal system is activated to alert the passengers that the car is returning nonstop to the designated level.
When Phase I is initiated under the current code, the fire hat is required to flash intermittently when the FAID in the machine room or hoist way is activated.

To remove the car from Phase 1, you must return the car to the designated landing, then with the doors open turn the designated level three-position switch to the "BYPASS" or "RESET" position then to off to place it in normal operation.

PHASE 2

Phase 2 is the Emergency In-Car Operation of the elevator and becomes effective only when Phase 1 Emergency Recall Operation is in effect and the car has been returned to the recall level.

The firefighter takes the key from the Phase 1 key way which should be in the ON position and enters the car where they should find the Phase 2 key way. The phase 2 key way should have 2 or 3 selections on it: an On and Off selection and a Hold selection. The key way will normally be in the Off position, so now the officer or their designee places the phase 2 key way into the On position. Nothing should happen. This is good since that is exactly what should occur. By placing the key way onto the on position, we have now put the system into Phase 2 recall and have gained "total" control over that elevator car. The car will only do what it is told to do from the interior of the car by you. It is recommended that a firefighter equipped with a portable radio be assigned a position as elevator operator.

Here are a couple of examples of how the controls should work:

When you select a floor button and push it, the indicator light should light up but the car will not move
To open and close the doors you need to hold the open and or close button until the doors have "fully" opened or closed. If you do not continuously press the button, the door will automatically move back to its original position. This is a safety feature so that if you open a door in a high heat situation, the door will close by simply removing your finger from the door open button.
The emergency stop button once again is returned to service and should work

Moving the car.

Before moving the car and proceeding up, two floors below the fire floor in a high-rise building, we need to take a quick look. Shine a light up the elevator shaft and make sure you do not see smoke or fire entering the hoist way. If you see smoke or flames then we need to use an alternate means of accessing the fire floor. Now if no fire or smoke is seen it means we can proceed up to the floor we have chosen. We do need to choose an alternate floor other than our final destination to insure that the car is working properly. In addition, when we do this we can get a look at the internal layout of the floors to allow us to know what we will see upstairs. So pick another floor button on the key pad.

Close the elevator car door fully. Remember, if you remove your finger from the door close button before the door fully closes, the door will return to the fully open position and you will have to start over again. After the door closes and the car starts to move, I would try the emergency stop button to insure that it works at this point. As we proceed up the hoist way, we should stop at an intermediate floor, look up the shaft again and then head to the floor two floors below the fire floor.

Our Destination: (or 2 floors below the fire)

We have now gotten to the floor we have chosen and opened the doors (do not forget to hold the button until the doors completely open). The key selection is in the On position. If we are keeping the elevator, we place it into the Hold position to keep the car there for our use. When in the hold position, the door close button is disabled and the doors will remain open. That will keep the car there for our use, but if we want to return it to the first floor for other companies, we can turn the key to the Off position and it will return to the designated level on phase 1 recall. The first due units may not be able to spare a firefighter as an operator so this would be the best way to expedite some more help. Ultimately, we need to think about assigning someone to operate the elevator to get this resource back in the mix so it can be properly controlled and used by follow up companies.

It's also important to remember that a change in the phase 2 key position is recognized by the elevator system only when the elevator is stopped at a floor and the doors are fully opened.

When we are done using the elevator, be sure to place everything back to normal operations unless the system needs to be taken out of service.

We will not cover elevator rescues here but may in the future invite someone to give a multiple day course covering elevator rescue.

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