Fire Protection And Domestic Through-Floor Lifts

Vertical-transportation solution promotes fire safety in the home.

submitted by Terry Lifts

Fire prevention work has been a statutory duty for fire and rescue services since 2004 with the introduction of the Fire and Rescue Services Act. Typical activities include home fire safety checks, well visits and arson prevention.

However, the number of home fire safety checks has been in decline over the last 10 years. The pandemic has accelerated this issue. With these prevention activities targeted toward vulnerable members of the community, ultimately, people’s lives are put at risk.  

Fire Escape

Everyone has a responsibility to be vigilant and prepared in case of fire. Like many U.K.-based fire and rescue services, the London Fire Brigade is proactive in promoting fire safety in the home. One key area is a home escape plan.

The brigade advises, “If you — or anyone you live with — might find it difficult to escape quickly without assistance in an emergency, make extra plans to get them to safety,” and goes on to offer a free home fire safety visit for additional expert advice. This is especially important and should be a vital consideration for individuals using a lift to travel between floors in their home.

Through-Floor Lifts

Through-floor lifts have risen in popularity since several models were introduced to the market in the 1980s. This includes the Harmony, the first domestic through-floor direct-acting hydraulic lift that was launched in 1988 by Terry Lifts. As the name suggests, a through-the-floor lift offers an easy and invaluable means of movement between two floors for disabled individuals, particularly those in a wheelchair.

Today, the U.K. home lift market boasts several manufacturers and many suppliers of through-floor lifts. However, not all lifts are made equal when it comes to smoke and fire protection.

Smoke and Fire Protection Barrier

A through-the-floor lift requires an opening to be created for the lift to pass through when travelling from floor to floor.  This instantly compromises the fire integrity and removes the fire protection of the first-floor structure — potentially enabling a fire to move freely between floors.  

In England and Wales, there is no statutory requirement to fit any fire protection to the underside or the top cover trapdoor for residential installations of through-floor lifts. This can mean that there is no fire barrier between the floors, bearing in mind that in many cases the lift is positioned between a living room and a bedroom. This can prove extremely significant when trying to minimise the spread of smoke and fire to “buy” time to allow a safe means of escape.

Some home lift suppliers believe that the addition of fire doors to compartmentalise the house helps to mitigate the risk. This is true, but only to some extent, as fire doors only deal with the horizontal spread of smoke and flame. This is not sufficient fire protection for a property with a through-floor lift as, without vertical compartmentalisation, smoke and fire would be able to travel through the aperture and between the floors, unimpeded.

Lift manufacturers and suppliers who cannot comply with BS 5900:2012 often recommend the fitting of fire doors to the rooms served by the lift, but this does not diminish the vertical compartmentalisation requirement.  

Standard BS 5900:2012

BS 5900:2012 applies to powered home lifts with partially enclosed carriers and no lift way enclosures serving two floors in private dwellings only. The standard specifies requirements for the design, manufacture, installation, commissioning, testing, maintenance and dismantling of new permanently installed electrically powered home lifts. It can also be used as guidance for the refurbishment and re-installation of existing home lifts. The standard addresses both fire protection (9.12) and behaviour of a home lift in the event of a fire (9.13).

BS 5900:2012 meets the essential health and safety requirements of Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC as enacted as the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008.  

For best practice, a through-the-floor lift must comply with BS 5900:2012 and be independently tested by an approved body. Terry Lifts’ Harmony home lift, for example, is compliant to BS 5900:2012 — maintaining 30-min fire and smoke integrity between the two floors, whether it is parked upstairs or downstairs. 

Designed With Fire Safety

To achieve this, fire safety is designed into Terry Lifts’ through-floor lifts. This has been the case since the company introduced its first hydraulic through-floor lift into the marketplace in the late 1980s. The design uses smoke and fire seals to safeguard the aperture against the vertical spread of smoke and fire wherever the lift is positioned.

Steve Hill, national sales manager for Terry Lifts, said:

“There are two primary areas of concern when installing a through-floor lift. The first is to minimise the spread of smoke and fire through to the upper level, and the second is that the structural integrity of the bedroom floor (a typical location for a through-floor lift) is not compromised. Our through-floor lifts are designed and installed to meet both requirements.”

With these safety considerations, it is critical that a compliant home lift is installed by a competent engineer. All Terry Lifts’ installers and service engineers, including assistants, are qualified to a minimum of NVQ Level 2 in Platform Lift Installation/Service & Repair and carry a Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) card, for example.

Smoke and Heat Detectors

In addition to smoke and fire seals, Terry Lifts also provides smoke alarms as standard. These will be positioned at each level. Heat detectors are provided as an alternative if the lift is adjacent to a kitchen; this prevents accidental activation from cooking smoke.  

When the smoke detectors are activated, the lift is isolated to ensure it cannot be used. If the lift is in use, the home lift is taken out of action once it reaches its destination. At any point during transit, even though the smoke detectors have been activated, a change in direction is possible. Normal door and light operation are still available at landings.

Full Compliance 

Hill said: 

“To our mind, it is imperative that any specified product and product installation must demonstrate full compliance with BS 5900:2012, the Machinery Directive and Building Regulations, all of which have been written with the safety of the building occupiers and emergency services in mind. Furthermore, as every site will differ, it is critical that the local building control officer has conducted a site visit to ensure structural alterations and fire protections are to standard.”  

Increased Fire-Related Incidents

While the number of fire-related fatalities in Great Britain has been steadily declining since the early 2000s, down to 311 in 2020/2021, there’s an upward trend in fire-related incidents across Great Britain and Northern Ireland (source: statista.com). Sadly, this figure coincides with cuts to budgets and the number of fire and rescue workers.

The average response time for primary fires in England is also increasing, a slowing of 6 s for the year ending September 2021 compared to the previous year. This is the largest slowdown since between March 2014 and March 2015. The Fire Brigades Union identifies huge cuts as the cause of this slowdown.

Hill concludes: 

“There’s no denying that this intensifies the issue of mandatory fire protection for through-floor lifts. Ensuring correctly installed and compliant home lifts for some of society’s most vulnerable people is essential for specifiers, manufacturers, installers and building control.”