Fire brigade elevator

A fire department elevator. A ladder is mounted on the left, the ceiling hatch can be seen in the rear left corner.

Fire brigade lifts are specially secured lifts that enable the fire brigade to reach the fire floor in the event of a fire . They are used to rescue people and to transport equipment and materials for the fire brigade.

Regular elevators should not be used in the event of a fire, as their safety devices in the event of fire e.g. B. can lead to the elevator stopping with open doors on a smoky floor. Therefore, if possible, they are programmed in such a way that in the event of a fire they only drive to the fire service access level or the next possible smoke-free floor and are then shut down. Fire brigade elevators are therefore specially secured. The specially secured fire service can be activated by the fire service.

Legal basis in Germany

Requirement of fire service lifts

The necessity of a fire brigade elevator is regulated by the model high-rise guideline or the special building regulations introduced by the federal states. There is no nationwide regulation.

The model high-rise guideline as well as the special building ordinance of NRW require fire service lifts from the high-rise border of 22 m above ground level (floor height of at least one lounge). Basic requirements for fire service lifts are regulated in DIN EN 81-72, for old systems in TRA 200.

Maintenance and testing of fire service lifts

Before 2015, only a few major German cities (e.g. Düsseldorf , Frankfurt am Main , Hamburg ) had specific, only partially congruent specifications from the local fire services for the initial and recurring inspection of the existing elevators .

With the entry into force of the Industrial Safety Ordinance (BetrSichV) on June 1, 2015, the inspection of the fire brigade elevator operation by approved monitoring bodies (ZÜS) was regulated for the first time and in principle. The test is to be carried out before the first commissioning, after changes that require testing and recurrently after a maximum of two years (main test).

In particular, the following legal text must be observed during the test, so that not only the elevator system is checked, but also the interaction of all other safety-related equipment required for the safety-related operation of the elevator system:

“The test also includes all safety devices external to the elevator that are required for the safe use of the elevator system, such as overpressure ventilation systems or emergency power supply for fire brigade elevators. For the tests according to this section, equivalent results from tests according to other federal and state legislation should be taken into account. "

Representatives of professional fire brigades, elevator manufacturers, testing organizations and operators have joined the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure e. V. developed the guideline VDI 3809 Part 2 for the "testing of technical building systems - fire service lifts". The most important element of the guideline is checklists for testing fire service lifts. In addition to an order check, a detailed technical check of the structural, elevator-side, control and communication-related requirements and the labeling of the elevator takes place. Since the test also affects the behavior of the fire brigade's elevator in the event of a power failure, a power cut in the building is required as part of the test sequence. Such a shutdown is associated with considerable organizational effort in certain buildings, in particular hospitals. The checklists for the test were therefore structured in such a way that only one shutdown is necessary, if possible. Furthermore, test points are arranged according to spatial proximity wherever possible, so that travel times during the test are minimized.

Regional particularities

North Rhine-Westphalia

In North Rhine-Westphalia there are building regulations, so that a fire brigade elevator can only be requested from 30 m. In these regulations, in addition to the above Standard requirements for rescue in an emergency require a continuous shaft ladder in the fire service lift shaft and a viewing window in the lift shaft doors.

Dusseldorf

The fire brigade in Düsseldorf has regulated in detail how a fire brigade elevator is to be designed and why the requirements of DIN EN 81/72 could be dangerous for fire fighters in some cases and how a fire brigade elevator operation is to be checked despite the lack of specific federal and state requirements.

The execution criteria for the construction and operation of fire service lifts in the city of Düsseldorf reflect the experience of more than 25 years of operating fire service lifts and are widely used in Germany. More than 105 systems are already in operation in Düsseldorf alone; Trend 120 connections in less than three years.

In order to carry out a proper test, the Düsseldorf fire brigade has drawn up a test protocol which can be used to test all required points in the shortest possible time.

Hamburg

Frankfurt

criticism

The recurring inspection of the fire brigade elevator functions often does not take place or takes place only inadequately, despite the requirements that are now in force. The state monitoring of the testing activities of the approved monitoring bodies fails in this area due to the fact that this special test is not taken into account in the system register of the federal states for systems requiring monitoring, in which the normal main test of elevator systems must be entered, but not the examination of the special functions of an elevator. Thus, the responsible supervisory authorities have not identified a deficit in the area of this review.

Defects that result in the special fire brigade elevator not being available or not fully available in the event of an incident are also not part of the danger points to be reported to the supervisory authorities, as is regulated for the normal elevator function if there are problems in the area of the typical accident blackspots fall, entrapment or electric shock. In addition, the private law commissioning of the ZÜS by the operator prohibits the experts from reporting defects directly to the regulatory authority responsible for the construction and operation of the building or to the responsible fire brigade.

There is a very specific need for action here, on the one hand, with regard to the inclusion in the plant register and, on the other hand, in terms of communication between experts and supervisory authorities.