Transcript Slide 1

Fire Safety
The cost of false alarms?
Reducing risk, increasing confidence
and saving lives
Fire Safety
Why is there problem?
Fire Safety
 If an automatic fire-detection and fire-alarm
system is used and maintained properly, its
fast response to a fire that is just beginning
can greatly reduce the risk to life and limit
damage to property.
 However, features that provide this fast
response can also cause false alarms.
Fire Safety
How big is the problem?
Fire Safety
 About 90% of automatic fire-detection and
fire-alarm systems do not regularly cause
false alarms. However, the remaining 10%
are involved in most false alarms.
Fire Safety
 According to the ‘Fire Statistics Monitor, in
2011-12 there were nearly 249,000 false
alarms attended by the fire and rescue
services.
 This does not include false alarms where the
FRS did not attend
Fire Safety
What is the cost of false alarms?
Fire Safety
 The cost of false alarms in the UK is
estimated to be about £1 billion a year.
Fire Safety
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The cost to the fire and rescue service
Disruption of business
Attendance to reset systems
Increased life cost of systems
Fire Safety
What are the other factors to false alarms?
Fire Safety
 Diverts the fire and rescue service from
dealing with real emergencies
 Reduces the risk on the road for the FRS
 Reduced faith in the system by residents
 Risk of reduce response from the FRS
 This may affect your customer service and
the general routine of your organisation
 Increase in costs to the local community
Fire Safety
What can we do to reduce false alarms?
Fire Safety
What does the legislation say?
Legislation (RRO) Requirements - Maintenance
 Maintenance
17. —(1) Where necessary in order to safeguard the safety
of relevant persons the responsible person must ensure that
the premises and any facilities, equipment and devices
provided in respect of the premises under this Order or,
subject to paragraph (6), under any other enactment,
including any enactment repealed or revoked by this Order,
are subject to a suitable system of maintenance and are
maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and
in good repair.
Legislation (RRO) Requirements - Maintenance
 Under fire-safety law, employers and others responsible for
buildings must provide effective
 fire precautions to protect employees as well as people who
may be living in or visiting the property.
 Your fire-detection and fire-alarm system forms part of those
fire precautions.
 A system that causes false alarms may not be efficient as
people will gradually lose confidence in the fire alarm and
start to ignore its warning.
 So it is important that you recognise the importance of
keeping the fire-detection and fire-alarm system in good
working order and removing the causes of false alarms.
Fire Safety – What is required
Reducing False Alarms- What Should You
Expect from Your Maintainer?
 Fire maintenance is not simply about servicing and
maintaining equipment, but making sure you have the
correct equipment, located in the right place to protect life
and minimise false alarms.
Fire Safety – What is required
What Should You Expect?
 Avoiding preventable false alarms that result in resets of
fire alarm systems
 Ensuring residents have faith in the system and
 Eliminating unnecessary costs.
Fire Safety – The effect of reducing false alarms
What is the effect of reducing false alarms?
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Removes the risk of reduce response from the FRS
Reduces the logistics of attending to Reset systems
Reduces cost of resetting fire alarm systems
Reduces contamination of devices, reducing maintenance
costs.
Fire Safety – What are the causes of false alarms
What are the causes of false alarms?
false alarms are the result of faulty equipment, malicious
acts, human error, or activities near detectors.
Fire Safety – What are the causes of false alarms
What are the causes of false alarms?
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Pollutants in the air setting off smoke detectors;
Extremely high temperatures setting off heat detectors;
Vandalism or malicious acts;
Mistakes in using the system;
The equipment being faulty or not being maintained
properly;
 Fire detectors or red ‘break glass’ units being in the wrong
place;
 The fire-detection system not being appropriate for the
building or how it is used.
Fire Safety –False alarms
Monitoring of false alarms?
If your fire-detection and fire-alarm system is well designed
and maintained;
 It should produce no more than one false alarm a year for
every 50 detectors fitted,
 and no more than one false alarm in any four-week period.
 For large fire-detection systems, the aim is to reduce the
level of false alarms well below that of one a year for every
50 detectors
Fire Safety – Examples of false alarms
Examples of false alarms?
 Steam activating an optical smoke detector
 Change the detector for an ionisation smoke detector,
combined heat & smoke detector.
 Relocate the detector, moving the detector a small distance
can stop the false alarm.
 Ensure there is a bathroom extractor
Fire Safety – Examples of false alarms
Examples of false alarms?
 Cooking fumes activating an Ionisation detector
 Change the detector for an optical smoke detector,
combined heat & smoke detector, smoke & CO detector
 Ensure there is a cooker extract
 Door closer on the kitchen door
Fire Safety – Changes in the standards
Please Ask yourself this Question – Have you been
made aware of the changes to the British Standards
BS5839?
Fire Safety – Changes in the standards
Changes to British Standards
 Changes in BS5839 part 1
 Changes in BS5839 part 6
Fire Safety – Changes in the standards
Changes in BS5839 part 6
 Clarity to Sheltered Accommodation and it’s needs
 A) Alert residents to a fire in their own flat (increased
detection for new systems)
 B) Alerting the FRS (minimising false alarms)
 C) Early warning of fire in communal facilities (possible
reduction in communal fire alarm systems)
 D) Signals to the FRS not blocked by other alarms
Fire Safety – Changes in the standards
Signals to the FRS not blocked by other alarms
 Warden call system, does a pull cord alarm take priority
over smoke alarms
 Intruder Alarms, does a PIR alarm take priority over a
smoke alarm.
Fire Safety – Changes in the standards
Cases
 There has been recorded cases on Sheltered
Accommodation sites where a pull cord alarm to a real
emergency has blocked a genuine fire call from a another
apartment in the same development, allowing the fire to
take hold.
Fire Safety – Changes in the standards
Changes in BS5839 part 1
 Increased importance of fire alarm zone charts
Fire Safety – Changes in the standards
 One of the factors in delaying the fire fighters tackling
a fire in the Rosepark Care home was an incorrect
zone plan, 14 elderly people lost their lives
Fire Safety – Maintenance
Maintenance
 Like all electrical systems, your fire-detection and fire-alarm
system will be effective only if it is maintained and regularly
checked by a competent person. Poor maintenance will not
only lead to false alarms, it may also lead to a genuine fire
alarm being ignored or missed. It can also reduce the life of
the system. All these problems lead to extra costs for you.
Fire Safety – Maintenance
Questions