Hello Gents ( and ladies)
A modern elevator will have phase I, and phase II fire service. There will usually be two recall floors. A main recall floor, and a secondary recall floor. If a fire alarm is recieved by the building system, a set of dry contacts open, and the elevator(s) make a buzzing sound, the fireman hat light turns on, and the door close at a reduced torque. The elevator returnes to the main recall floor, opens the doors, and the buzzer turns off, but the fireman hat remains lit. If the fire department wants to use the elevator to effect a rescue, they can turn a phase II key on in the car operating panel. While on phase II they can operate the elevator from within. Constant pressure on a floor button will send the car to that floor where it will sit with the doors closed. Constant pressure on the dooropen butten will open the car door. Relase of the open button will cause the doors to close. Once the doors are fully open they will stay open. If the phase II switch is turned off the elevator will revert back to phase I and return to the recall floor. The phase II switch also has an option to hold the elevator at the chosen floor. While the elevator is on phase II the fireman has the option to cancel floor calls he has already put in.
If the initiating device is a heat, or smoke sensor on the main recall floor the elevator will recall to the secondary recall floor. usually another floor with ingress, and egress such as a garage, or terrace. During the firemans operation all hall buttons become inoperative.
The operation to reset from firemans operation varies with the different controllers. Most will reset when the elevator(s) are at the recall floor, and on phase I only. The bulding fire alarm must be reset, and not be in alarm.A
qualified person must insert a key in the recall floor hall station and turn to reset, or bypass then turn the key switch to off.
Firemen have the option to capture the elevator for non fire emergencies by using the key switch in the recall floor hall station. The elevator will go on phase I independant of the bulding fire alarm system.
I hope this answers some of the questions.
Glenn D