Evacuation lifts in Singapore must satisfy Clause 6.6 of the Fire Code 2023: a minimum clear platform of 1.2 m by 1.4 m, a protected lobby, standby power, a dedicated evacuation switch and defined authorized-operation procedures. These lifts apply to buildings exceeding 24 m in habitable height or those accessible to persons with disabilities, with specific exceptions for PG I and PG II developments. They operate only under authorized personnel or SCDF direction, and staircases remain the primary means of escape for able-bodied occupants.

TL;DR:

• Evacuation lifts in buildings taller than 24 meters or accessible to persons with disabilities must meet specific size, location, and operational standards outlined in Clause 6.6 of the Fire Code 2023, including a minimum platform of 1.2 m by 1.4 m for PWDs and 1.7 m by 1.5 m for taller PG II buildings.
• Protected lobbies are required for evacuation lifts unless the building is no taller than four storeys, and signage must clearly identify these lifts at each landing and inside the car.
• Emergency operation relies on a breakable glass evacuation switch, monitored by the Fire Command Centre, which must have backup controls, CCTV, and intercoms with proper device heights to coordinate safe occupant evacuation.
• Standby power supply and fire-rated cable routing are critical, with diagrams needed to demonstrate continuous operation and fire-safe pathways, as missing documentation often delays approval.
• A detailed operational emergency plan, staff training, and coordination with SCDF during installation are essential, as most rejections stem from incomplete procedures and communication device details rather than lift dimensions.

Table of Contents

• Regulatory Requirements From SCDF Clause 6.6 and Related Codes
• Operational Requirements: Evacuation Mode, FCC Oversight, PWD Holding Points and Staffing
• Design and Installation Details Engineers Must Specify
• Authority Submission Checklist and Common SCDF/FSSD Rejection Points
• How AEC Technical Advisory Singapore Supports Evacuation Lift Design and Submissions
• Practical Pitfalls and a Prioritized Checklist From a Consultant’s View
• Client Services for Evacuation Lift Compliance and How to Engage
• Sources
• FAQ

Regulatory Requirements From SCDF Clause 6.6 and Related Codes

Clause 6.6 of the Fire Code 2023 governs the scope, dimensions and operational logic of evacuation lifts, and every design submission should trace back to its wording before any drawing goes to SCDF. The clause applies to buildings exceeding 24 m in habitable height or buildings accessible to persons with disabilities, with exceptions carved out for PG I and PG II developments where stipulated otherwise, so the first task on any project is confirming which category the building falls into.

Platform sizing is the most commonly checked dimension, and it is fixed rather than negotiable. Where a fire lift doubles as an evacuation lift for persons with disabilities, Clause 6.6 requires a clear car platform of at least 1.2 m by 1.4 m, rising to 1.7 m by 1.5 m for PG II buildings over 40 storeys. Engineers working on high-rise residential or mixed-use towers should check storey count early, since the larger platform affects shaft sizing, structural coordination and lift car procurement lead times.

Protected lobbies form the second pillar of the requirement. The ERP PWD guidance states that evacuation lifts must be located within a protected lobby, such as a smoke-free lobby, an external exit passageway or an external corridor. Buildings not exceeding four storeys are exempt from this requirement, though their passenger lifts must still carry an evacuation switch. That exemption often gets missed on smaller commercial retrofits, where teams assume the full lobby requirement applies regardless of building height.

Design teams preparing evacuation lift layouts should confirm the following before finalizing drawings:

• Building habitable height and PWD accessibility status, which determine whether Clause 6.6 applies at all.
• Platform dimensions matched to storey count, since PG II buildings over 40 storeys trigger the larger 1.7 m by 1.5 m car.
• Protected lobby provision unless the building qualifies for the four-storey exemption.
• Signage marked clearly as “Evacuation Lift” or “Evacuation Lift for PWDs” at each landing and within the car.
• Confirmation of whether a fire lift is being used to double as the evacuation lift, which is only permitted where more than one fire lift exists and the doubled lift meets full evacuation-lift design criteria.

That last point deserves emphasis because it is a frequent source of design rework. A fire lift can serve as an evacuation lift for persons with disabilities only when the building has more than one fire lift and the lift taking on the dual role meets the platform, lobby and signage criteria in full. Projects that plan a single fire lift and later try to repurpose it for evacuation duty typically fail this test and need a redesign at the shaft level, which is far more expensive after concrete has been poured than at scheme design.

Operational Requirements: Evacuation Mode, FCC Oversight, PWD Holding Points and Staffing

An evacuation lift is not simply a lift with a bigger platform. Its behavior during an emergency, and the systems that support it, are specified almost as tightly as its dimensions.

1. Evacuation switch placement and function. A switching device similar to the fire lift switch sits next to each evacuation lift landing door on the designated floor, housed in a breakable glass-fronted box marked “Evacuation Switch.” Activating it puts the lift into evacuation mode, which disables landing calls except at designated floors, mirroring firefighter service behavior under SS 550.
2. FCC monitoring and secondary switch. The Fire Command Centre must monitor lift floor location, direction of travel, occupation status and power supply status, with a manual override and secondary evacuation switch installed at the FCC itself.
3. Communication and surveillance. Lift cars need an intercom or distress button, positioned between 0.8 m and 1.2 m above finished floor level, and CCTV coverage should extend to lift lobbies so the FCC can verify conditions before dispatching a car.
4. PWD holding point provision. Holding points sized at a minimum of 900 mm by 1.4 m, marked with the wheelchair symbol, must be positioned according to a priority order: evacuation lift lobby first, then fire lift lobby, then smoke-free lobby or external corridor, then exit staircase, as set out in Clause 2.4.
5. Staffed operation. Evacuation lifts run under trained building staff or Community Emergency Response Team volunteers who coordinate with SCDF on scene, since the lift’s use is a supplementary, staff-dependent strategy rather than an automatic system occupants operate themselves.

Pro Tip: Annotate the 0.8 m to 1.2 m intercom height directly on your submission drawings. It is a small detail SCDF reviewers check consistently, and leaving it off is an easy way to draw an avoidable query.

The workflow in a real emergency depends on that staffing chain holding together: a trained staff member or CERT volunteer activates the evacuation switch, the FCC confirms lift status and communicates with occupants at the holding point, and SCDF assumes control of the lift once on site. None of this replaces the staircase as the default escape route for occupants who can use it.

Design and Installation Details Engineers Must Specify

Getting the platform size and lobby right is necessary but not sufficient. SCDF reviewers look closely at how power, cabling and surveillance systems are documented, because these are the elements most often left vague in a first submission.

Standby power is a hard requirement. The evacuation lift must be provided with a standby power supply for continuous operation during a power failure or fire emergency, and drawings should show the standby generator or dedicated power source, the transfer switching arrangement and the circuit routing back to the lift machine room. Reviewers want to see this traced on a single-line diagram, not just described in a specification note.

Cable routing carries equal weight. Power and control cables serving the evacuation lift must be routed through areas of negligible fire risk, in the same manner required for fire lifts, and the submission should document that routing explicitly rather than leaving it implied by a shaft section. A cable run through a service riser shared with combustible storage is the kind of detail that draws a rejection.

Nearly all evacuation-lift related queries from SCDF and FSSD reviewers concern missing operational or cable-routing evidence rather than platform dimensions. Getting the platform size right does not guarantee approval if the communication and power documentation is thin.

Other design details worth locking down early:

• Show the secondary evacuation switch and manual override at the FCC, with landing-level signage cross-referenced to the same labeling used in the schedule.
• Position CCTV and intercom devices with a clear call-back path to the FCC or a manned station, not just a general note that “communication will be provided.”
• Coordinate passenger lifts with fire lifts in buildings exceeding 24 m, since passenger lifts are expected to work alongside fire lifts to increase evacuation capacity and may need fire lift switches of their own.
• Confirm lift car finishes and controls meet SS 550 installation requirements, since this is the referenced standard for firefighter-service style behavior in evacuation mode.

Where a project already involves a performance-based fire engineering approach, the evacuation lift strategy should be cross-checked against that report rather than designed in isolation, since fire engineering assumptions about occupant load and egress timing directly affect lift capacity calculations.

Authority Submission Checklist and Common SCDF/FSSD Rejection Points

A submission package for evacuation lifts is judged on completeness as much as correctness. Missing one supporting document is enough to trigger a query cycle that adds weeks to an approval timeline.

Drawings and schedules to include:

1. Floor plans showing the evacuation lift lobby, holding points and signage locations on every applicable storey.
2. Sections through the lift shaft confirming platform dimensions and protected lobby construction.
3. A lift schedule listing car size, speed, standby power source and evacuation mode behavior.
4. Power and control cable routing diagrams demonstrating the negligible fire risk pathway required for both fire lifts and evacuation lifts.
5. CCTV and intercom layout drawings with device heights annotated.

Operational documents that reviewers expect alongside the drawings:

• An evacuation standard operating procedure naming who activates the switch and how occupants are moved from the holding point.
• Staff training records or a training plan for personnel expected to operate the lift during an emergency.
• An FCC operation statement describing monitoring capability and the handover protocol to SCDF on arrival.
• Documentation supporting any protected lobby exemption, where the building is four storeys or fewer, and detail confirming PWD holding point compliance with Clause 2.4.

Even a technically compliant design fails review if the submission lacks an explicit operational procedure describing who activates the evacuation switch, how evacuees move from the holding point, and how the FCC hands control to SCDF. Most rejections trace back to missing communication device detail, incorrect intercom heights or unclear proof of fire-protected cable routing rather than an error in the platform dimensions themselves. Teams that build the SOP and training documentation alongside the drawings, rather than as an afterthought, tend to clear review faster. A related overview of the broader SCDF fire safety compliance process is worth reviewing before compiling the full package.

How AEC Technical Advisory Singapore Supports Evacuation Lift Design and Submissions

Coordinating evacuation lift design across architecture, M&E and fire safety consultants is where most projects lose time. The company offers assistance with SCDF and FSSD submissions, endorsements for structural and architectural elements, and mechanical and electrical coordination related to standby power and cable routing, key aspects in evacuation lift reviews.

Assembling a submission that meets SCDF expectations means pairing the technical drawings, the lift schedule, the power diagrams, with the operational evidence reviewers ask for: SOPs, staff training statements and FCC operation details. That combination is the difference between a submission that clears in one cycle and one that returns with queries.

Engaging a consultant early, at scheme design rather than after tender, gives enough runway to size the shaft correctly, confirm the protected lobby footprint and coordinate the standby power source before drawings are frozen.

Practical Pitfalls and a Prioritized Checklist From a Consultant’s View

The biggest mistakes on evacuation lift projects rarely involve the platform dimension itself. They cluster around underestimating cable routing documentation, treating the protected lobby exemption as a default rather than a check, assuming a single fire lift can double as an evacuation lift, skipping the SOP until submission week, and placing intercom devices without confirming the 0.8 m to 1.2 m height band.

• Confirm building height and PWD status before sizing anything.
• Verify whether more than one fire lift exists if dual use is planned.
• Draft the evacuation SOP and FCC statement alongside the drawings, not after.

Architects, M&E engineers and fire engineers need to align on cable routing and standby power early, since each discipline tends to assume another has documented it.

— Aman

Client Services for Evacuation Lift Compliance and How to Engage

Evacuation lift compliance rarely sits with a single discipline, and coordinating structural shaft design, M&E power routing and the SCDF submission itself under one team removes a layer of back-and-forth that otherwise falls on the developer to manage.

AECTechnicalSG’s SCDF/FSSD submission service covers the drawings, schedules and operational documentation evacuation lift approvals require, alongside PE endorsement for the structural and architectural elements tied to the lift shaft and lobby. A typical engagement starts with a design review against Clause 6.6, moves through drawing preparation and SOP documentation, and ends with submission and query response support. Visit the services page to request a proposal for your project.

FAQ

What are the fire lift requirements in Singapore?

Fire lifts in Singapore must be located within a protected lobby, run on standby power, and include a firefighter switch that gives SCDF control during an emergency, requirements set out under the Fire Code’s firefighting systems provisions. They differ from evacuation lifts in purpose, though the two can share design features when a fire lift is formally designed to double as an evacuation lift.

Can you use a lift in an evacuation?

Lifts can be used in an evacuation, but only evacuation lifts meeting Clause 6.6 requirements, operated by trained staff or under SCDF direction, are approved for this purpose. Staircases remain the primary escape route for occupants who are able to use them, with evacuation lifts serving as a supplementary route for persons with disabilities.

What is the difference between a firefighting lift and an evacuation lift?

A firefighting lift is provided primarily for firefighter access to upper floors during an incident, while an evacuation lift is designed to move persons with disabilities out of the building under authorized supervision. A single lift can serve both roles only where the building has more than one fire lift and the doubled lift meets the full evacuation-lift design criteria, including platform size and signage.

What are the requirements for a fire fighting lift to be located within a protected lobby?

A firefighting lift must sit within a protected lobby such as a smoke-free lobby, external exit passageway or external corridor, giving firefighters a safe staging point separated from smoke and fire spread. This protected lobby principle mirrors the requirement for evacuation lifts, with an exception in buildings not exceeding four storeys.

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