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Landlords’ lift responsibilities
• THE front page story last week (‘Trapped in a lift is an emergency’, September 24) is misleading.
Last year London firefighters attended more than 16,000 such incidents taking them away from other emergencies, community safety work and training, at a cost to London taxpayers of over £4million.
Public safety is our priority and firefighters will always attend genuine emergencies where people are shut in lifts and other means of rescue are not available. But we cannot waste firefighters’ time or public resources.
Your story doesn’t ask why the landlords, who are responsible for lift rescue and maintaining the lifts, did not release those who became trapped.
I think most people would agree that they should be the first port of call when people are shut in lifts, and not the London Fire Brigade.
I am surprised that the Fire Brigades Union member quoted is asking when being stuck in a lift becomes an emergency – the policy is quite clear.
Brian Coleman
Chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority
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