What is an Unwanted Fire Signal?
An unwanted fire signal is an automatic fire alarm reported to the fire service that turns out not to be a fire.
What is the problem?
Automatic fire alarms are a good method of letting the building occupants know there is a fire. They are important tools to give the occupants early warning of a fire.
Automatic smoke detectors can be set off by other situations that are not fires.
These include dust, steam, aerosol and system faults.
999 calls to automatic fire alarms that turn out to be false are a problem for Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service. The cost in both time and resources have become unsustainable.
Unwanted fire signals stop firefighters from carrying out essential training, equipment maintenance and community work.
On-call members of staff have their work and family life disrupted unnecessarily.
What are we doing about it?
Mobilisation policy
We are adapting our mobilising criteria to Automatic Fire Alarm calls. We will no longer attend premises that have an automatic fire alarm sounding unless:
- There is a fire (or evidence of a fire)
- The premises has facilities for people to sleep e.g. hotel, flats etc.
- The premises is a residential care home.
- The premises is a special fire risk.
- The premises is domestic.
Cost recovery
We will recover our costs if we attend 3 or more unwanted Fire signals at a premises in a 12-month period.
We will continue to charge for unwanted fire signals until the premises has had a 12-month period free of unwanted fire signals.
The cost will be based on the hourly rate of a fire appliance.
Exemptions – Residential care and domestic premises will not be subject to cost recovery.
What do you need to do?
Emergency Evacuation Plan
When the fire alarm sounds follow the emergency plan for the building immediately.
The emergency plan will change depending on the type of building. In all circumstances, this should include investigating the potential cause and location of the alarm. You should start your evacuation strategy immediately
Staff should be trained to react to fire alarms as per the emergency plan.
When to call the fire service
You should call the fire service immediately on the alarm sounding if:
- There is a fire
- You are in a domestic premises
- You are in a residential care premises
- You are in a premises where people need help to evacuate e.g. a care setting.
You should implement your emergency plan by starting the evacuation strategy and investigating the fire.
In all other premises you should investigate the reason for the fire alarm sounding before calling 999.
If you discover evidence of a fire you should phone 999 immediately and ask for a fire service attendance.
The following should be considered:
- Smell of smoke where there shouldn’t be.
- Visible flames where there shouldn’t be.
- If more than one smoke or heat detector is activated (double knock)
- If a manual call point is activated
A fire alarm should not prompt an immediate 999 call unless or you are a residential care home or a domestic premises.
Alarm Receiving Centres (ARC)
If your alarm notifies an alarm receiving centre, you should inform them of the changes to our mobilisation policy.
We will not attend an automatic fire alarm actuation unless it is accompanied by a 999 call from the premises confirming there is a fire.
You may want to have a delay with the ARC to allow time to investigate.
You must ensure the alarm is managed when the premises is not occupied.
Blocks of flats
Blocks of flats tend not to have an automatic fire alarm covering the communal areas if unless the fire risk assessment highlights a need.
Most purpose-built blocks of flats will not require a fire alarm to notify the whole building. Each individual flat should have their own domestic alarm system that only notifies the flat occupants.
If a communal fire alarm is installed, then the alarm should be managed. This is difficult when no staff are present on site. The responsible person should ensure any alarm actuations are responded to. The fire service is not responsible for resetting the alarm panel which may leave the alarm sounding until the management company attends.
Blocks of flats are only partially exempt from cost recovery. Unwanted fire signals originating from inside the flat will not be charged. Unwanted fire signals originating from the communal areas will be charged if 3 or more occur in a 12-month period.
What happens when I call 999?
The fire control operator will ask if you have a fire or have carried out an investigation.
If your premises is a residential care premises, the fire control operator will send a fire appliance immediately
If the premises has sleeping accommodation, the fire control operator will either wait while you investigate or send a fire appliance to investigate depending on the circumstances.
In all other premises the fire control operator will ask you to investigate the cause of the alarm and only call 999 if you find evidence of a fire.
What can I do to reduce false alarms?
Servicing and maintenance
- You should ensure your alarm is maintained and serviced by a competent alarm engineer.
- You should inform the alarm engineer of any faults immediately.
- The alarm should be serviced every 6 months as per BS5839-1.
- As part of the servicing, you should inform the alarm engineer of any areas that experience persistent false alarms.
Contractor management
If contractors are working on site, an assessment of the impact of dust, steam and other airborne pollutants on your alarm system should be made. This may require a temporary amendment to your fire risk assessment to account for building work.
Cooking
You should ensure:
- The type and position of detectors is correct inside and outside the kitchen
- Cooking extract and interlocks are installed, maintained and cleaned if required.
- Cooking is not be left unattended.
- Kitchen doors closed.
Steam
Steam from showers, baths and cleaning equipment can set off alarms. Ensure the doors to bathrooms are closed. Cleaning equipment, such as laundry equipment, should be located in a dedicated laundry covered by a heat detector.
Fire alarm records
We recommend you keep a record of the false alarms to help identify trends and causes of false alarms. Your alarm engineer can check theses records when carrying out a service.
What legislation applies to Unwanted Fire Signals?
Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004
The fire and rescue services act allows the fire authority to recover costs for premises that have persistent unwanted fire signal (an automatic fire alarm that turns out to be false and is attended by the fire service).
Fire Safety Order 2005
The fire safety order places a number of requirements on the responsible person.
These include:
- Implement the general fire precautions required to ensure the safety of people on the premises.
- Make a recorded assessment of the risk from fire.
- Ensure that the fire alarm is maintained in an efficient working order.
- Establish a suitable emergency plan to be followed in the event of a fire.
- Put in place management plan to plan, organise, control and review the preventative and protective measures.