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FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS => Fire Safety => Topic started by: TickityBoo on October 13, 2025, 11:10:24 AM
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It is not uncommon to find passenger lifts in 2 storey retail stores, serving ground and 1st floors only, thereby providing wheelchair access to the upper floor e.g. Next, M&S etc. Normally, lifts should be enclosed in a protected shaft or within a protected stairway to ensure (fire and) smoke cannot spread to upper floors via the lift shaft. My question is this - given that escalators and open accommodation stairs are perfectly acceptable between ground and first floors without any protection (since they do not breach a compartment), does the requirement for a protected lift shaft still apply - and if so, why, given smoke is able to travel up the open stair or escalator?
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In a lot of these the first floor is like a big mezz and open to the ground near the front but with protected stairs in addition to the accommodation ones up to the mezz gallery, these rarely have protected lift shafts - have you experienced stores where other than the lift the floors are traditionally fully seperated?
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Exactly, it seems pointless to require a protected lift shaft in such situations but Building Reg guidance and guidance for existing buildings state a protected shaft (or enclosed in an escape stair) is required for passenger lifts, with no mention of relaxing this in certain situations.