Fire Lifts, Escalators & Moving Walks Management System (FEMS) in an Airport

In December 2013 the management of the International Airports of Rome (ADR) decided to assign me to project a fire safety system similar to EN 81-73 : 2005[1], for the lifts installed in Leonardo da Vinci Airport of Rome Fiumicino. The specific requirement of the Direction of the airport was to implement a fully automatic system, with no human supervision, to prevent passengers in a lift to be stranded on a floor, or trapped in a lift, where a fire has broken out. The Direction of ADR added some further specific project requirements: - The hardware and software of the system was to have “open” architecture - The system had to be reliable and with a high level of safety; - Reduce to a minimum the probability of false alarms and safeguard the capability of the system to start with a real fire alarm. The Satellite terminal G gates were chosen to start the project. Escalators and moving walks (EMWs) have also been included in the system. To reduce the probability of false alarms a 3D simulation model of a map of fire sensors, based on about 1400 sensors in the Terminal and statistical data coming from about 18,000 fire sensors, has been prepared and verified. The requirements of open hardware (PLCs (Programmable Logic Computers) and electronic equipment) and open software (PLC and SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) software) have been fully accomplished and the system is now operative in the Terminal G gates. ADR management has recently decided to extend the system to the rest of Leonardo da Vinci Airport. The FEMS project has been recently approved for lifts, escalators and moving walks in public transport by the Italian Ministero delle Infrastrutture e Trasporti (Italian Infrastructures and Transports Authority)