passed legislation that mandated all existing elevators meet ASME A17.3-1993 Code for Existing Elevators. There was an exception made

that allowed a delay to complete fire service upgrades and door restrictor installations until September 2005. The penalty for not being in complete compliance by September 2005 is rumored to be $5,000 a day with no maximum.

Door restrictors are a device that prevents trapped passengers from opening elevator doors when the car is 18 inches above or below floor level. There are two phases of fire service: Phase 1 fire service sends the elevator to the first floor to allow passengers to evacuate. Phase 2 fire service is designed to allow firemen to take control of the elevator.

Another factor to be considered is that as the September 2005 deadline draws near, the ability of the elevator vendors to have sufficient resources in the form of material and experienced manpower to provide these code upgrades will be severally strained. In fact, if everybody who needs to do the upgrade should order the repair today there would not be enough experienced manpower to do all the repairs before the September 2005 deadline.