Things You DidnÂ’t Know About Fire Watch Guards

While emergency evacuation drills are good practice in fire safety and also a key part of staff training, false alarms can simply be a waste of everyone's time. Not least for the emergency services, who could be called out for no reason if your alarm system is automated. We should all do what we can to make certain that the Fire Services are free to cope with real emergencies.

If false alarms occur sometimes, they may have a real and disruptive effect on your business and productivity. The other negative impact can be that if you have too many false alarms, the Fire Services will not respond without having a specific manual request. That is not great news if you ever have a real fire.

A false alarm can be a symptom of a fault on your system, so they should never be ignored. If you cannot find the cause of an alarm activation, it is always best to call within an engineer to investigate the problem. The last thing you will need is for the same thing to happen a day or two later because of same small fault. Even worse, it may be a signal that an element of the alarm isn't properly functioning, which could have a serious impact within the event of a real fire, allowing the fire to spread much more than it otherwise might.

Many false alarms are caused by people within the building not being aware that a fire alarm system is in place, or at least not comprehending the kinds of thing that can activate the fire alarm. You may handle these through a few simple procedures:

Ensure staff and visitors realize that your building is protected by an automatic fire alarm system

Make these details part of your induction training and fire safety training for all staff.

Have prominent notices up at all main entrances to your work environment. Use the next wording: "These premises are protected by an automatic fire alarm system. Please obtain permission from the site manager before undertaking any work involving flame, smoke, heat or sparks."

Make sure that no-one carries out any 'hot works' without permission from the Health and Safety Representative, fire Marshall, or whoever has responsibility for authorising such works

Staff have to know that any work involving flame, smoke, heat or sparks must have special permission.

Build this into staff training and ensure it really is included in staff manuals, operating plans, etc.

Have a Hot Works Permit system or similar mechanism to guarantee that contractors working on site follow your safe working procedures.

Build this requirement into contracts with any contractors who shall undertake work on the premises.

Make certain that no work involving the generation of dust or even the utilization of spray paint is done within an area with smoke detectors in, unless the detectors are properly protected.

Make certain in which somebody has specific personal responsibility for dealing with this as well as similar matters.

If possible, smoke detectors can be replaced with heat detectors, but only by a qualified engineer.

The alternative to swapping to heat detectors is to cover and protect the smoke detectors through the period of work (with paper, plastic, etc).

This certainly will not be done lightly, as covered smoke detectors will clearly not work correctly, if at all, in the event of a real fire.

The situation should be risk assessed, and alternative means of detection put in place (such as someone within the area with specific fire-watching brief throughout the period of works).

Make certain that somebody has the specific personal responsibility for removing the covering from the detectors when the work is finished. It's vital that this is done promptly so that the alarm system is fully functional straight away.

Ensure that the Fire Watch Services alarm system is tested after the work is completed, to guarantee that it's functioning correctly.