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The United Kingdom Fire and Rescue Services attended 722,000 fire and false alarm incidents in 2008/09. Unwanted fire signals divert essential resources from the emergency services and put an unnecessary drain on public finances - costing the UK economy around £1 billion a year.
For a professional building services engineer, false alarms can be disruptive to the day-to-day running of a building. In addition, should a large number of false alarms occur, building occupants can become complacent and fail to respond to the warning of a real fire because they believe it to be just another false alarm.
For the fire industry, finding ways to minimise this risk is a top priority. The Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) policy for the Reduction of False Alarms & Unwanted Fire Signals is underpinned by the Fire Safety Order and calls for consistent standards and a consistent approach across the board in order to make a positive contribution to fire safety.
Managing false alarms
The CFOA policy aims to provide a uniform process for those parties involved in managing the reduction of false alarms and unwanted fire signals; to reduce the number and provide an appropriate response by fire and rescue.
The policy recommends looking at issues such as arson, smoking and managing any building work and alterations, restricting the spread of fire and smoke and helping people with special needs should a fire alarm be triggered. Once any potential fire hazards have been recognised and removed wherever possible, the CFOA policy goes on to recommend how to implement fire detection systems.
An alarm given from any single point needs to be heard throughout a building. A fire detection and alarm system will be necessary. This is likely to include the following:
- Manual call points (break-glass call points) next to exits with at least one call point on each floor.
- Electronic sirens or bells.
- A control and indicator panel.
- Automatic detection.
It may be necessary to upgrade your fire warning system to include an automatic fire detection and warning system in buildings that are likely to have unoccupied areas or common corridors. These are the kind of circumstances where a fire could develop to the extent that escape routes could be affected before the fire is discovered.
It is also recommended that fire alarm systems are connected remotely to an approved Alarm Receiving Centre who will monitor the system 24/7 and alert keyholders and the fire brigade as required
System design
Once a fire detection system has been installed, there are a number of actions that building services engineers can take to help reduce the number of false alarms.
The system design and location of detection and activation devices should be routinely reviewed against the way the premises are being used. When there is any change in building use or structure building services engineers should consult with the system or service supplier, fire prevention officers and building control to ensure that the system will still comply with BS 5839-1:2002 and will not be exposed to any factors that may increase false alarms.
Without question, testing and maintenance is key to the reduction of false alarms and unwanted fire signals. The CFOA policy recommends that a fire detection and alarm system should be supervised by a named responsible person, and in the case of large commercial and public buildings, this will fall to the building services engineer who should ensure that the system is regularly tested, inspected and serviced and that all events are recorded in the Fire Log Book to build an accurate record of system failures.
In addition, building services engineers should ensure that any service organisation is independently third party accredited – the BAFE SP203 scheme is a good mark of competency.
False alarms
The accidental operation of manual call points is often a common problem when it comes to false alarms. To avoid this, building services engineers might want to consider the use of a protective cover around each call point, particularly where they may be subjected to physical knocks
As false alarms and unwanted fire signals are a growing issue, the latest fire detection systems have been developed to help reduce them. For instance, if a single device has been the cause of multiple false alarms it may be due to its unsuitability for that particular environment. Specialist detectors such as the 3oTec combine optical smoke, carbon monoxide and a heat detector in one unit. These detectors will digitally transmit smoke, heat and gas data to powerful algorithms located in the control panel, where the relationship and values between each medium will quickly confirm or reject individual events as being a real fire or a false alarm.
In addition, intelligent devices such as the 3oTec fire detector can adapt to changes in use, a change of occupancy levels and change of processes taking place. By adapting to changes in the risk level (from fire or false alarm potential) false alarms can be significantly reduced while at the same time maintaining the optimum level of performance from the fire detection system.
The CFOA and the Fire Industry Association, which supports the policy, believe that it can make a positive contribution to fire safety; reducing the number of false alarms, unwanted fire signals and the number of unnecessary calls to which the fire and rescue services respond to. By reducing the number of false alarms, this will consequently reduce any complacency of building occupants so that when an alarm sounds - evacuation begins immediately.
Building services engineers need to look at the latest technology and use it to its best advantages, ensure an appropriate system is in place and that ongoing service and maintenance is strictly adhered to. This can help ensure that false alarms and unwanted fire signals are significantly reduced and safety on site is improved.
