The LWF Blog

Fire Safety for Facilities Management Personnel – Fire Service Facilities – Part 271

September 23, 2024 11:56 am

Lawrence Webster Forrest (LWF) is a specialist fire engineering and fire risk management consultancy whose aim is to give information on best practice in fire safety for facilities management personnel through this blog series. In part 270, LWF began discussing smoke control facilities which may be operated by the Fire Service. In part 271, we explore communication facilities for the Fire Service and Firefighters’ Emergency Switches.

Firefighters attending a fire must be able to communicate with the Fire Service personnel co-ordinating their efforts. Portable radio equipment routinely used by Fire Service personnel is commonly used to facilitate these communications, however, in the case of large, complex buildings or those areas where radio transmissions may be unreliable, a dedicated communications system for the purpose should be considered for installation.

Facilities may be provided at the building or site in question, such as a dedicated telephone system linking firefighting lobbies and a suitable control point at Fire Service access level. Any two-way communication system installed for this purpose should comply with the recommendations given in BS 5839-9 Fire detection and fire alarm systems for buildings – Code of practice for the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of emergency voice communication systems.

The cabling used for installation of the system should be of the type considered ‘enhanced fire resistance’ rather than ‘standard fire resistance’. This is to help ensure that failure of this system is unlikely in a fire situation. The cabling should conform to the requirements given in BS 8434-2.

Firefighters’ Emergency Switches

BS 7671, also known as the IEE Wiring Regulations requires a “firemans’ switch” to be provided in the low-voltage circuit intended to supply:

• Exterior electrical installations operating at a voltage exceeding low voltage
• Interior discharge lighting installations operating at a voltage exceeding low voltage

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 also requires the provision of firefighters’ switches, as they are now known, and in Scotland, the switches are required under the Building (Scotland) Regulations.

The switches allow firefighters to quickly and easily disconnect power from high-voltage devices that may pose a risk in the event of a fire emergency.

In part 272 of this series, LWF will begin to explore the interesting and essential subject of human behaviour in fire situations. In the meantime, if you have any queries about your own facilities or wish to discuss this blog series, please contact LWF on freephone 0800 410 1130.

Lawrence Webster Forrest is a fire engineering consultancy based in Surrey with over 35 years’ experience, which provides a wide range of consultancy services to professionals involved in the design, development and construction and operation of buildings.

 

While care has been taken to ensure that information contained in LWF’s publications is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of this information.