FIRE & ELECTRICAL SAFETY A FALSE ALARM
Steven Foxley, Managing Director of Siemens Building Technologies, highlights a key health and safety issue regarding fire safety protection.
The complexity of buildings, density of occupation and growing user demands are increasing the urgency to ensure that life safety equipment fulfils its true purpose of preventing fire and saving lives.
Steven Foxley, Managing Director of Siemens Building Technologies for the UK and Ireland highlights a key health and safety issue regarding fire safety protection: “In 2014-15, unwanted fire alarms caused by equipment accounted for two-thirds of all false alarms, amounting to a total of 143,500 and although this figure is slightly lower than the previous year, it is still unacceptably high. The correct design, technology selection, installation and maintenance of fire detection and fire alarm systems virtually eliminate unwanted alarms, yet this high figure is still tolerated.”
A WASTE OF TIME
AND RESOURCES False call-outs not only impact the organisations themselves, in terms of loss of earnings and loss of reputation, but are also a public safety issue. When alarms go off repeatedly, there is a tendency for people to disregard them and in the case of a real fire; this type of complacency could further endanger lives. Today’s technology resolves this issue and it is a false economy to install fire detection systems that put the public and organisations at risk.
Most call-outs are either caused by badly maintained systems, or poor quality technology that cannot distinguish false triggers such as burnt toast, steam or dust. Unwanted alarm alerts still automatically instigate calls to the emergency services. Due to the high number of unnecessary call- outs, which exert pressure on public sector resources, there is a growing prevalence of fines and regulation. A false alarm is referred to as an ‘unwanted fire signal’ as soon as the fire service is summoned.
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A COSTLY DETERRENT The pressure on firefighting resources led the London Fire Brigade (LFB) to introduce a stringent new rule to fine organisations if they have more than nine false alarm call-outs in a year. However, the LFB states that despite a 7.3% drop in the number of call-outs after the introduction of the charge, they are still responding to false alerts every quarter of an hour on average.
False alarms generated from remotely monitored fire detection and fire alarm systems cost businesses and Fire and Rescue Service authorities an estimated £1 billion each year in the UK, according to the Fire Industry Association. There is a strong feeling across the fire industry that more stringent measures need to be taken against repeat offenders, to act as a strong deterrent against sub-standard equipment and poor performance by installers and service providers.
Steven continues: “Fire detection systems simply should not cause unwanted alarms. If an organisation suffers from excessive false alarms, the root cause is either poor technology, or poor service and maintenance support, and this is an addressable issue. The effect that false alarms have on business continuity is immense. Lost working hours and the upheaval of evacuating premises adds up to significant financial losses.
“At Siemens we work with organisations across a range of industries to select and apply the correct fire detectors for their location and usage; this alone reduces the chances of an unwanted alarm from the detector itself. It is the responsibility of fire alarm companies to not only install and maintain the technology, but also to advise on best use and how to minimise potential unwanted fire signals.”
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