A Guide To Reducing The Number Of False alarms From fire

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According to the ‘Fire Statistics, United Kingdom’, in 2002 there were nearly280,000 false alarms from systems, and these types of call continue toincrease. This places an unacceptable burden on the fire and rescue service,and attending large numbers of false alarms can affect the motivation offire service staff.False alarms not only waste the fire and rescue service’s valuable resources,they also cause increased dangers on the roads. Accidents involving fireengines responding to false alarms can and do happen. These incidents,however rare, are unacceptable and need to be reduced.If your fire-detection and fire-alarm system is well designed and maintained,it should produce no more than one false alarm a year for every 50 detectorsfitted, and no more than one false alarm in any four-week period. For largefire-detection systems, we aim to reduce the level of false alarms wellbelow that of one a year for every 50 detectors.If your fire-detection system produces more false alarms than should beexpected, the fire and rescue service would consider it to be unsatisfactory.The person you employ to design and install a new fire-detection system,or to maintain an existing system, must be competent (that is, they musthave the necessary knowledge, training, experience and abilities to do thework). That person should be able to makesure that your fire-detection and fire-alarmsystem is designed, installed and maintainedto the highest possible standard.The level of competence of many contractorshas been independently certificated underan approved scheme. Your local fire andrescue service or the BFPSA can give youdetails of approved schemes.4
Your local fire and rescue service is always happy to give advice on anyfire-safety matter including overcoming problems with false alarms. Pages7 to 12 of this booklet also give advice on common causes of falsealarms and the action to take.Fire safety and the lawUnder fire-safety law, employers and othersresponsible for buildings must provide effectivefire precautions to protect employees as wellas people who may be visiting or using theirproperty. Your fire-detection and fire-alarmsystem forms part of those fire precautions.A system that causes false alarms may not beefficient as people will gradually lose confidencein the fire alarm and start to ignore its warning.So it is important that you recognise theimportance of keeping the fire-detection andfire-alarm system in good working order and removing the causes of falsealarms. The advice in this booklet will help you.It is also worth remembering that if a genuine fire alarm is ignored (forexample, because people mistake it for yet another false alarm), this canlead to death, injury and extensive damage. It is well known that manycompanies that suffer a serious fire will never effectively recover and willstop trading.5
Page 1 and 2: A guide to reducing the numberof fa
Page 3: The guidance given in this booklet
Page 7 and 8: Causes of false alarmsFalse alarms
Page 9 and 10: Action to takeWhen the fire alarm s
Page 11 and 12: If your alarm system automatically
Page 13 and 14: MaintenanceLike all electrical syst
Page 15 and 16: NotesUse the space below to make an

A Guide To Reducing The Number Of False alarms From fire

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