A fire elevator is an elevator with certain functions for firefighters to extinguish and rescue when a fire occurs in a building. Therefore, the fire elevator has high fire protection requirements, and its fire protection design is very important. Firefighter elevators in the true sense are very rare in my country’s mainland. The so-called “firefighting elevators” we see are ordinary passenger elevators with the function of returning to the preset base station or evacuation floor when the fire switch is activated. They cannot be used in the event of a fire.

The fire elevator usually has a complete fire protection function: it should be a dual-circuit power supply, that is, if the building’s working elevator power supply is interrupted, the emergency power supply of the fire elevator can be automatically switched on and can continue to run; it should have an emergency control function, namely When a fire occurs upstairs, it can accept instructions to return to the first floor in time, instead of continuing to accept passengers, it can only be used by firefighters; it should reserve an emergency evacuation exit on the top of the car, in case the elevator’s door opening mechanism In case of failure, you can also evacuate here. For the main part of a high-rise civil building, when the floor area does not exceed 1500 square meters, one fire elevator should be installed; when it exceeds 1500 square meters but less than 4500 square meters, two fire elevators should be installed; when the floor area exceeds 4500 square meters , There should be three fire elevators. The shaft of the fire elevator should be set up separately, and no other electrical pipes, water pipes, air pipes or ventilation pipes should pass through. The fire elevator shall be equipped with an antechamber, which shall be equipped with a fire door to make it have the function of preventing fire and smoke. The load capacity of the fire-fighting elevator should not be less than 800 kg, and the plane size of the car should not be less than 2m×1.5m. Its function is to be able to carry larger fire-fighting appliances and place life-saving stretchers. The decoration materials in the fire elevator must be non-combustible building materials. Waterproof measures should be taken for the power and control wires of the fire elevator, and the doorway of the fire elevator should be provided with flooding waterproof measures. There should be a dedicated telephone in the fire elevator car, and a dedicated control button on the first floor. If the functions in these aspects can reach the standard, then in case of a fire in the building, the fire elevator can be used for firefighting and lifesaving. If these conditions are not met, ordinary elevators cannot be used for firefighting and lifesaving, and it will be life-threatening to take the elevator in the event of a fire.
The fire elevator is driven by the elevator car to move up and down in the elevator shaft. Therefore, this system should also have higher fire protection requirements.
1. Ladder wells should be set up independently
The ladder shaft of the fire elevator shall be set up separately from other vertical tube shafts, and cables for other purposes shall not be laid in the elevator shaft, and holes shall not be opened in the shaft wall. A partition wall with a fire resistance rating of not less than 2 hours should be used to separate the adjacent elevator shafts and machine rooms; Class A fire doors should be provided when opening doors on the partition wall. It is strictly forbidden to lay flammable gas and Class A, B, and C liquid pipelines in the well.
2. Fire resistance of elevator shaft
In order to ensure that the fire elevator can continue to work under any fire conditions, the shaft wall of the elevator shaft must have sufficient fire resistance, and its fire resistance rating should generally not be less than 2.5 hours to 3 hours. The fire resistance rating of cast-in-place reinforced concrete structures is generally more than 3 hours.
3. Hoistway and capacity
There should be no more than 2 elevators in the hoistway where the fire elevator is located. When designing, the top of the hoistway should consider measures to exhaust smoke and heat. The load of the car should consider the weight of 8 to 10 firefighters, the minimum should not be less than 800 kg, and its net area should not be less than 1.4 square meters.
4. Car decoration
The interior decoration of the fire elevator car should be made of non-combustible materials, and the internal paging buttons should also have fire prevention measures to ensure that they will not lose their function due to the influence of smoke and heat.
5. Fire protection design requirements for electrical systems
Fire-fighting power supply and electrical system are a reliable guarantee for the normal operation of fire-fighting elevators. Therefore, the fire safety of the electrical system is also a crucial link.