The LWF Blog
Fire Safety for Facilities Management Personnel – Human Behaviour – Part 280
November 25, 2024 12:07 pmLawrence 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 279, LWF discussed the weekly fire alarm testing regime and instructions to building occupants via the public address system. In part 280, we continue to look at human behaviour and fire alarm signals.
A perfectly-functioning fire alarm system would only ever be heard by building occupants under two circumstances – the first, if they had been pre-warned there was a fire alarm test or drill. Secondly, of course, if there was a real fire and the evacuation signal was given. This situation is rarely achievable due to false alarms, but repeated and regular false alarms should be addressed as promptly as possible.
The potential for a faulty fire alarm system to prejudice the safety of occupants is significant. Repeated, unnecessary alarm signals will certainly mean that the occupants will be reluctant to evacuate upon hearing the signal.
In buildings where frequent false alarms are experienced and are found to be unavoidable due to the number of sensors or other conditions within the building, effective fire safety management would involve considering the use of silent first stage alarms and or time-related systems. In essence this means that the fire location would be confirmed by a staff member before the general evacuation was sounded. This obviously means there is a delay in evacuation but once the signal is given, building occupants know the fire situation is genuine and will waste no more time in evacuating.
The use of such in-house systems as staff or silent alarms should be approached with caution. When repeated false fire alarms are experienced, amendments made to the fire safety management policies and practices can be slanted more towards false alarm management than fire safety, which is, of course, very dangerous. Procedures put into place must be suitable for real fire situations and carried out promptly and efficiently by staff in order to ensure safety for building occupants.
Indeed, some Fire Service areas encourage management to investigate fire alarm signals before summoning them to a fire. While this is understandable, given the pressure put on Fire Services by false alarm calls, it is not suitable in all cases as it is entirely dependent on good management and an appropriate number of staff being available. Some establishments, such as care homes, hotels, hospitals and hostels should be cautious about agreeing to such conditions, in instances where sleeping occupants may be put at risk.
In part 281 of this series, LWF will look at fire development and people’s understanding of it. 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