London’s Worst Lifts Revealed

30th September 2014

The London Fire Brigade recently revealed the top locations in London where you are mostly likely to get shut in a lift.

Firefighters attend an average of 13 non-urgent lift call-outs every day, totalling almost 5,000 incidents a year. These call-outs relate to incidents where a person is shut in a lift but not in any immediate physical or medical danger.

Naturally, time spent at these calls reduces the capacity of the Brigade to attend serious emergency incidents. To address this, since 2009, the Brigade has been recovering costs for all non-emergency call-outs and whilst the number of lift releases has decreased since, the amount of call-outs is still high.

The London Fire Brigade’s recent decision to reveal London’s worst lifts is intended to ‘name and shame’ those responsible in order to encourage action to resolve recurring issues.

London Fire Brigade Third Officer, Dave Brown, said:

“If there is a genuine emergency we will be there but on many occasions if you are shut in a lift it’s an inconvenience not an emergency situation. It’s the responsibility of building owners to maintain their lifts and ensure they use a lift engineer call out service if the lift breaks down.

“The Brigade is always willing to work with building owners to advise on lift safety. Preventing people getting shut in lifts is in everyone’s interest and we’re calling on all building operators to ensure their lifts are regularly maintained and that their staff are properly trained to release people who get shut in them.”

Under existing rules, the Brigade are entitled to recover £290 plus VAT from owners of buildings and lifts for attending non-emergency lift call-outs. This charge is applied from the third occasion firefighters are called to the same building.

To view the list of ‘most attended lifts in London’ click here.

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