Elevator failure is the Achilles Heel of supertalls safety
The Downside to Life in a Supertall Tower: Leaks, Creaks, Breaks
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/realestate/luxury-high-rise-432-park.html
Elevator failure is the Achilles Heel of supertalls safety.
Reports that elevators failed in 432 Park Avenue is alarming for Department of Buildings unique requirements for safe egress from exceptionally high structures rely upon elevators as supplement to customary egress stairs.
As a consequence special electrical power for the elevators is mandatory as well as other measures for safely exiting over a long distance (over 1/4 mile in the tallest, impossible for the infirm, medicated, aged, youngest).
It is likely that DoB inspected 432 Park Avenue for the reported failure of two elevators to determine if safe (assisted, managed) egress was maintained during outage. If not inspected, perhaps because not reported by management or residents, that is a grave error which placed the residents in harms way during the failure.
The condo board should be notified of this danger in case of elevator failure, and more importantly, so should the residents who may be the first to notice the outage, even trapped inside as the article noted. Emergency buttons inside elevators as well as voice communications are there for this safety purpose, and in the case of supertalls absolutely crucial.
Despite elevators special egress role for supertalls, the boards and management should alert residents to not rely upon elevators for exit if there are outages. Building staff should watch for outages too.
While not usual for fire drills in residential high rises, best done for supertalls.