“…lift shafts provide a ready pathway for smoke and fire to travel upwards in multi-storey buildings. Buoyant fire gases in a lift shaft can quickly fill upper floors, and there is much evidence to suggest that the majority 
of fatalities in such fires occur on higher floors significantly removed from the seat of the fire…”
Fires involving lift shafts pose particular risk in hotels where there can be large numbers of people, some of whom may be elderly or infirm, and in an unfamiliar place. In 2007 alone, it’s estimated that one in 12 hotels and motels in the USA suffered a structural fire.Â
That was certainly true in 1980 MGM Grand Hotel fire in Las Vegas which claimed 84 lives, the worst disaster in Nevada history. In that incident, while the fire primarily only damaged the second floor, most of the deaths occurred on the upper floors, with elevator shafts and stairwells allowing toxic smoke to spread upwards.
It’s hard to overestimate the impact this fire had on both our understanding of vertical fire movement and on the building regulations to mitigate against fire risk. The fire in a garment factory in a tall building claimed 146 lives, and directly led to new laws on building access and egress, fire proofing requirements, the availability of fire extinguishers, the installation of alarm systems and automatic sprinklers.
Under current fire safety legislation it is the responsibility of the person(s) having responsibility for the building to provide a fire safety risk assessment that includes an emergency evacuation plan for all people likely to be in the premises, including disabled people, and how that plan will be implemented. Such an evacuation plan should not rely upon the intervention of the Fire and Rescue Service to make it work.
For more:Â http://www.glassonweb.com/news/index/16822/
