Evacuation procedures revised

SAFETY notices in high rise buildings instructing people not to use lifts in the event of a fire are likely to become a thing of the past, an expert said yesterday.

Evacuation procedures were being radically re-evaluated following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, said engineer Dr John Roberts.

Before the disaster it was universally accepted the safest way to escape from a fire was via the stairs.

But designers and planners were now rethinking this idea. Earlier this year a drill was carried out at the Canary Wharf tower in London in which 5,500 people got out of the building in 20 minutes using the lifts, said Dr Roberts. “Owners and designers are now looking at these issues,” he said. “It’s being seriously considered at the moment.”

Each of the Twin Towers housed 20,000 to 22,000 people, he said.

Experts calculated if the towers had been full at the time of the attacks, and all had to leave via the stairs, it would have taken four hours to evacuate each building.