A major change, perhaps a revolution or paradigm shift, is coming in the way we will design, manage and use buildings during emergencies that require evacuation of some or all occupants. The change focuses on the use of elevators/lifts in conjunction with, perhaps in preference to, stairs. In addition to many technical problems to solve, there are important issues that have received little discussion, let alone resolution, focused on who should be the beneficiaries of this, who decides what will be done and how the transition to use of elevators/lifts for evacuation can be accomplished with minimal confusion for building users as well as others such as fire services and regulators.