RiskUKAugust2017

FIRE SAFETY
Fire Alarms and Detection: Best Practice
Mike Floyd of the Fire Protection Association examines the
management, use and maintenance of fire alarm and
detection systems
Further guidance
Further guidance on the
completion of these tasks
is available from the FPA’s
Training or Publications
Departments. The FPA also
hosts a monthly webinar
series which recently
covered alarm systems,
roles and responsibilities.
All webinars are recorded
and available in the
member’s area of the FPA’s
website: www.thefpa.co.uk
*For more information on
alarm systems and
maintenance needs send
an e-mail to:
technical@thefpa.co.uk
ire alarm and detection systems are
Fundoubtedly an integral part of the fire
protection strategy for a property. However,
the management and maintenance of these
systems are all-too-often overlooked, poorly
maintained and/or poorly managed. The
severity of this situation is often
underestimated. This can leave people and
assets badly exposed, invalidate insurance
policies and. in many cases, fall foul of the law.
System management
In any premises subject to the requirements of
the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
or equivalent legislation, a responsible person
or duty holder must carry out a fire risk
assessment that considers the safety in case of
fire of all ‘relevant persons’. A relevant person is
any individual who is or may be lawfully on the
premises or any person in the immediate vicinity
who’s at risk from a fire on the premises.
Particular attention needs to be paid to those
at special risk, such as disabled people and
those with special support needs, and must
include consideration of any dangerous
substance likely to be on the premises.
The person with day-to-day responsibility for
the system, not necessarily a competent person,
is now termed ‘premises management’ to
remove the confusion with the former title of
‘responsible person’ which had been used in the
previous edition of the British Standard and is
used in overarching legislation in England and
Wales as described above.
This person may be the first point of contact
on fire alarm problems for any member of staff
or service contractors. They may also keep the
log book up to date, including false alarm
entries. The evacuation arrangements and
warnings will have been determined from the
building’s fire risk assessment.
Evacuation arrangements and
warnings
In some cases, a general evacuation warning
may be inappropriate and a delayed or staged
evacuation, perhaps by floor or defined area,
may be adopted. In those places such as
hospitals or department stores where a general
audible alarm isn’t deemed to be immediately
desirable, the alarm may be transmitted to a
permanently staffed control point or discretely
to pagers held by key staff whereby trained
people can assess the warning required and
then pass on the necessary instructions to staff
or the Controol Room as appropriate.
In taller commercial buildings designed with
reduced stair capacity, the evacuation signal
may be ‘phased’. This requires the fire alarm
system to emit a clear message to individual
floors in sequence so as to avoid overloading
the staircases.
A voice message system is the preferred
arrangement in such cases as an ordinary
sounder tone may ‘bleed’ into additional areas,
causing confusion as to when to evacuate.
Maintenance regimes
BS 5839-1 outlines the current guidelines for
servicing and maintenance regimes related to
automatic fire detection and alarm systems.
Many organisations, though, continue to service
systems to the previous guidelines. Practising
professionals should be aware that this doesn’t
ensure compliance with the current standards.
A maintenance regime may include the
following elements:
• Weekly test
• Monthly user requirements (where generators
are used as a form of standby power)
• Quarterly inspection of vented batteries
• Periodic inspection and testing of the system
(not exceeding six months between tests)
• Annual service which may be undertaken
across two six-monthly services or any other
pattern that assures not more than 12 months
pass since any device has received attention
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