Reducing lift calls

One in ten calls received by the London Fire Brigade (LFB) is to release a person shut in a lift. In 2008/9 we attended over 14,000 such calls. The LFB is not required to attend these calls and wishes to reduce the numbers of times it does because each lift call takes up the time of a fire engine and crew. The knock on effect is a reduction in capacity to attend emergency incidents, carry out community safety work and provide essential training for firefighters.

When taking 999 calls about a person shut in a lift, fire brigade control will ask callers a series of questions to determine whether or not a fire engine needs to attend. The aim is to find out whether or not there is a real emergency and whether there is anyone else who can release the person from the lift. Firefighters will always attend genuine emergencies where people are shut in lifts and when other means of rescue are not available. Lift owners have a responsibility to have arrangements in place to release people shut in their lifts – and should be the first port of call.

The LFB has the power to charge for releasing people from lifts or effecting entry to a lift at these non-emergency incidents and from 1 November 2009 will start to charge lift owners or operators on the tenth lift release at the same building within a twelve month period. Counting towards the ten releases will start 1 November 2009. The current charge is £260 + VAT. Once there have been ten lift releases at a building within twelve months, all subsequent non-emergency lift releases will be charged for.

It is the responsibility of the lift owner or operator to make suitable arrangements for lift maintenance and the safe release of anyone shut in their lifts. The LFB is not the appropriate agency to routinely release people from lifts. The charging scheme is being implemented to incentivise building owners to tackle this problem where it has reached and unacceptable level.

Suitable arrangements for the routine release of people shut in lifts include:

• providing a lift release service through a lift engineering or similar company
• providing trained staff able to release people who are shut in a lift - lifts must be risk assessed and staff must be properly trained before being authorised to carry out lift releases
• ensuring there are suitable communications in lifts so that a person shut inside can clearly see how to raise the alarm and be reassured that help is on its way
• distributing information to lift users so that they know what to do if they get shut in a lift 

People shut in lifts must be able to raise the alarm. The Fire Brigade should only be called in an emergency.

The London Fire Brigade wants to help you reduce the number of shut in lift incidents. Please contact your local team if you would like further information.

If you have received an invoice from the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) for lift related services you can appeal against the charge if there are reasonable grounds to do so.

 

Related documents

Lift Release Charge - Appeals & Application ( PDF, 30.8KB)

Reducing lift calls contact list ( PDF, 36.4KB)