Never use the elevator in a fire. Take the stairs. A small dog can go in a carrier rated for its weight, and a dog too heavy for you to carry down every flight walks beside you on a short leash. Which one applies depends on your actual dog, so weigh it now and stage the right gear by your door.
Brand names mentioned below are trademarks of their respective owners; EmergencyPetPrep is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.
This page is narrower than a general fire safety plan on purpose. It assumes you already know to get out and not go back in, which our house and apartment fire pet safety plan covers. It also assumes you may not have a car waiting downstairs, which our renters evacuation plan covers in full. What is left is the physical problem in between: getting a dog down 10, 20 or 30 flights with the elevator out of service.
Fire Alarms Pull Elevators Out of Service on Purpose
The mechanism differs between a fire and a power outage, but the plan is the same.
In a fire, elevators are built to lock themselves out of service. A fire alarm initiating device near an elevator door, hoistway or machine room triggers Phase I recall. The cars return to a designated floor, whether or not anyone is riding. This is a requirement under elevator safety codes such as ASME A17.1, which jurisdictions amend locally (Massachusetts, for example, through 524 CMR), according to a fire alarm consultancy that walks through the standard. Firefighters can then take over a car in Phase II, the fire department’s manual operation of elevators. The US Fire Administration’s high-rise guidance says elevators may become disabled or be secured by first responders, so do not use them during a fire.
In a power outage, do not count on the elevator either. Without electricity the cars can stop, unless the building has emergency power for them.
The USFA also says to close the stair door behind you in a fire. Most stair enclosures have fire-resistant walls and doors and mechanical pressurization systems that work best with the doors closed.
Either way, stage for stairs, not for an elevator you are hoping comes back.
Carrying Options by Dog Size
Gear marketing can imply that a backpack or sling handles any dog if you buy the right size. The published ratings say otherwise, and you should know the ceiling before you are on flight six.
| Dog size |
Realistic stairwell method |
What the manufacturers state |
| Small, up to 10 lb |
Sling carrier, one hand free for the railing |
PetAmi’s crossbody sling states a 10 lb maximum |
| Small to lower-mid, up to 25 lb |
Backpack carrier, both hands free |
K9 Sport Sack lists its Air line in a 5 to 25 lb category |
| Heavier than you can carry down every flight |
Short leash, walked down beside you |
See below |
Other K9 Sport Sack models are rated higher. The comparison chart on the Air 2’s Amazon listing shows maximums of 30 lb for the Sky Pack, 35 lb for the Urban 3 and Plus 2, 50 lb for the Knavigate and 80 lb for the Kolossus. A rating is a load limit, not evidence that you can carry that weight down many flights of stairs with a frightened animal. That judgment is this site’s reasoning, not a published rule: if you cannot comfortably carry your dog down every flight, the plan is a leash, and the technique below is what matters.
Products that promise to lower a pet out a window instead of down the stairs raise their own questions. Our guide to pet fire escape slings for a multi-story home takes them apart and lands on the stairwell as the default, for the same reason as this page.
Our renters evacuation plan recommends a carrier over a leash for stairwell descents generally. That is the right call for a dog small enough to fit one. If your dog is too heavy for you to carry, the leashed technique below is the plan.
Getting a Leashed Dog Down a Crowded Stairwell
A carrier keeps a small dog contained. A larger dog on a leash needs you to manage two things at once: your dog’s behavior and everyone else’s foot traffic on the same stairs.
- Shorten the leash to hip length before you enter the stairwell, not once you are on the stairs. ASPCApro’s leash-handling guidance recommends a “thumb lock” grip, with the handle looped over your thumb so the loop sits in your palm, and keeping a U-shape in the leash. That advice is written for ordinary walks, but the control problem is the same, with more people and less room.
- Pick a side and stay on it. No fire-safety authority addresses which side to walk a dog on in a crowded stairwell, so this is the site’s reasoning, not a cited rule. OSHA’s older fixed industrial stairs standard (29 CFR 1910.24(h), since superseded in OSHA’s 2016 walking-working-surfaces revision) called for handrails “preferably on the right side descending”, a convention that may still shape which side people default to. If residents hug the right-hand rail, keeping your dog between you and the wall, rather than between you and the flow of people, gives it less exposure to feet and less chance of tripping the person behind you.
- Bring a sturdy leash and a backup collar or harness. The ASPCA’s disaster preparedness guidance lists a traveling bag, crate or sturdy carrier plus an extra collar or harness and an extra leash, stored as close to your exit as possible. A leash that snaps under a sudden pull in a crowded stairwell is a worse problem than a slow descent.
- Don’t fight the crowd’s pace. A dog that stops, sniffs or balks on a landing is going to happen. Step to the side against the wall, let people pass, and keep moving once your dog does.
Whether to go back in for a pet at all is covered on our fire safety page, and the answer there is don’t. This section is what to do once you and the dog are already moving.
Do a Stair Day Before You Need One
NFPA’s safety tip sheet on home fire drills says to practice twice a year. That advice is written for people. Extending it to the dog and the stairwell is this site’s suggestion.
A stair day is what it sounds like: once, before hurricane or wildfire season peaks, walk your actual dog down your actual stairwell with the carrier or leash you would really use. Three things you will only learn by doing it:
- Whether your dog will walk calmly on a leash in a stairwell at all. Some dogs that are leash-trained outdoors panic on enclosed, echoing stairs they have never used. Find that out on a calm day, not during an evacuation.
- Whether the carrier fits through your building’s stairwell doors and turns. A snug fit through your apartment doorway doesn’t guarantee a tight stairwell landing will work.
- How long the descent takes. No source cited here gives a figure for the extra minutes a dog adds. Time your own building and your own dog, and you will have a real number instead of a guess.
Light and Reflective Gear for a Dark Stairwell
If the lights go out, a stairwell can be very dark. Building code does require backup lighting. NFPA 101 requires emergency lighting to meet set levels for the first 1.5 hours (90 minutes) after a power failure, according to a summary of the code’s section 7.9, and the illumination may decline after that. That is a minimum, not a guarantee for every scenario. A slow descent with a frightened dog, several stops on landings, or an under-maintained system can outlast it.
That is the argument for a light source that doesn’t depend on the building. A rechargeable LED leash, like the Illumiseen model featured below, lights the leash line so other residents moving past can see you and the dog. Pair it with a reflective or light-up collar if your dog tends to range toward the end of the leash.
Resting Landings for Senior Dogs
A young, healthy dog can usually handle a continuous multi-flight descent. An older dog with arthritis, hip dysplasia or reduced stamina often can’t, and a fast, uninterrupted descent risks a fall on a dog whose legs are already unreliable. Talk to your veterinarian ahead of time about a dog with mobility problems.
No cited source puts a number on how many flights a senior dog can manage, so this is the site’s reasoning. Build in a pause at a landing every few flights if your dog shows signs of struggling: panting hard, favoring a leg, or slowing dramatically. Don’t push straight through. A rear-support sling that takes weight off a weak hind end, covered in our senior and disabled pet evacuation guide, can be the difference between a dog that manages the descent and one that can’t finish it. That page also covers loading, timing and shelter questions for a mobility-limited pet.