Reducing unwanted fire signals
Automatic fire alarms help keep premises and their occupants safe by providing an early warning of a possible fire and enabling evacuation. But the vast majority of signals from automatic fire alarms are not actual fires. When a fire alarm goes off, as a result of anything other than a real fire, this is considered to be an unwanted fire signal.
Fire alarm and detection systems react as a result of either an increase in heat or the presence of smoke. Unfortunately, they also react to things such as steam, vapes, aerosol sprays and cooking fumes.
Consequences of unwanted fire signals:
- Ties up fire engines and personnel who could be attending real emergencies
- Can cause disruption to businesses effecting efficiency, profitability and services
- Frequent false alarms cause staff to become complacent, less willing to act quickly when hearing alarms
- Repeated calls may result in formal action being taken by Cleveland Fire Authority
How to avoid unwanted fire signals:
- Ensure the fire risk assessment for your premises is up-to-date and reflects conditions in your premises
- Ensure your system has been properly designed and installed, and is managed and maintained
- Ensure you have people designated to take responsibility for managing and maintaining your system
- Ensure if evacuation is part of your fire safety strategy this is regularly practised and staff are aware
- Ensure your procedures include the designation of specific staff to check for signs of a fire, when the fire alarm sounds, and if fire is found they call the Brigade using the 999/112 system
- Ensure false alarms are recorded in the fire alarm log book, including actions taken to prevent a repeat
Responding to automatic fire alarm actuations
Cleveland Fire Brigade will provide the following response to Automatic Fire Alarms (AFA) as below.
- For premises that do not provide sleeping accommodation – Cleveland Fire Brigade will not attend AFAs, unless a call is received from the premises via the 999-telephone system, confirming there is a fire or there are clear signs of fire.
- AFAs from ARC’s – If the call is received via an ARC, they will need to confirm that there is a fire situation at the premises or confirm that more than one device has actuated, otherwise no response will be mobilised.
- Domestic premises are exempt from the Policy.
- Hospitals and Care Homes are exempt from the Policy.
CFA will provide advice to the business community (in-line with resources available) to ensure that all non-domestic premises are aware of their responsibilities under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Where a premises can demonstrate that there are exceptional circumstances for that premises to receive an attendance then an exception can be granted.
The Authority recognises its ability to levy a charge for responding to a report of a fire where the call is made within certain circumstances associated with UwFS set out in the Fire & Rescue Services Act 2004 as amended. The Authority will not charge for attending UwFS unless non-compliance or the poor performance threshold is met as part of wider enforcement action under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order.
There is no requirement for any Fire and Rescue Service to respond to calls originating from an AFA system. It is the responsibility of the organisation to ensure they have an appropriate management system in place for actions to be taken as a result of the fire warning system actuating.
Legislation introduced in February 2012 amended the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 allowing authorities in England to levy a charge in certain circumstances:
- There is a report of a fire;
- The premises are not domestic premises;
- The report is false;
- The report is made as a direct or indirect result of warning equipment having malfunctioned or been miss-installed; and
- There is a persistent problem.
Cleveland Fire Authority has determined that a persistent problem is when premises reach more than four occurrences in a rolling twelve months. This applies to commercial premises and other premises regulated by the Fire Safety Order. The charge will be applied on the fifth AFA incident resulting in an UWFS in a rolling 12 month period. We will request the charge from the responsible person for the premises.
Once a premise has become chargeable all further attendance will generate a charge until the number of attendance reduces to less than five within a 12 month period.
