Elevator Smoke Containment — Block 11, Mid-Pike Plaza

The MGM Grand fire of 1980 shed light on the rampant movement of hot gases from a fire into an elevator shaft — pushing out through the normal gaps at the elevator cab and filling the exit corridors. The fire moved one hundred yards in only twenty seconds. The 85 lives lost that day never saw the fire from the casino-level deli; they died on the floors above, from smoke inhalation. Many codes changed after that incident: all vertical shafts now require smoke-proof enclosures.

For a sprinkler-protected building of three floors or more, the architects had three choices for hoistway smoke and fire containment.

The floor plan is a corridor condition, so elevator lobbies are neither feasible nor attractive.

Expensive, and not fail-safe: it relies on mechanical equipment tested four times per year and increases life-cycle cost.

Smoke and fire curtains at the hoistway interface stop smoke from seeping into the hoistway and riding it upward in a smoke-stack effect. The system is less expensive than pressurization, with no increase in life-cycle cost — testing is once per year, with the fire alarm system.

The installation is completely concealed: the housing hides in a two-inch shadow gap above the ceiling, and the rails match the elevator at the clear opening or recess into the wall cavity.