Checking premises before resetting the fire alarm.

[Tom Sutton]

I would like your opinions on a pharmacy within a medical centre. The medical centre has a fire alarm panel which is maintained by a fire alarm company. There is a independent fire alarm within the pharmacy, which was successfully interfaced with the main panel by the company that maintain the medical centre’s fire alarm panel. The practice manager of the medical centre now wants to be able to control the pharmacy fire alarm panel remotely i.e. reset it if it activates under a false alarm. The only problem with this is that she would not physically be able to check to see if there was a fire within the pharmacy before the panel is reset, as the pharmacy carry controlled drugs, and would prefer only pharmacy staff access to the pharmacy. The question is, under BS5839 if a fire alarm panel is activated for whatever reason, does someone who has been authorised, have to do a walk through of the unit to check that there is no fire before the fire alarm can be reset?

[Wiz]

I don't think BS5839 covers what system users have to do during a fire alarm warning condition. If it does I've never seen it!

It is obvious 'good practice' to find out what caused a fire alarm condition before resetting the system.

I could see potentially big legal problems for anyone who resets a fire alarm condition from a control panel without first checking on the cause of the alarm condition and ensuring it is safe to carry out a reset.

[Chris Houston]

Why does she want to do this? Is it because there are a lot of false alarms? If so, energies should be focussed on stopping the false alarms rather than reducing the amount of hassle that they cause.

Appologies if my assumptions about false alarms are incorrect.

[wee brian]

I canr rember the incident but there was a nasty fire in which people were killed, partially as a result of somebody cancelling an alarm rather than doing something about it.

I'm whith Chris on this. Why would you get a false alarm in a Pharmacy?

[kurnal]

Whilst I agree with all three of the  wise sages above I dont see a major problem in principle.
At least if the practice manager can reset the pharmacy panel, if a fire condition is present it will either reset and operate once again- in which case the brigade should be called- or will refuse to reset which should then prompt an action- take a look round- even for signs of fire from outside the building or if no signs of fire consider calling the pharmacist.

It gives the manager the ability to control possible nuisance calls and more intelligence on the situation.

[Chris Houston]

it will either reset and operate once again

....

....if the fire has not burnt through the cables which might only have 30 minutes fire resistance and even that is assuming they are properly installed.

I would say that if the alarm goes off, this should such a rare situation that it would warrant a full and proper investigation.

[Pip]

a few observations:
1)Fire services, in the quest to reduce false call outs, are not interested in turning up to this type of risk unless there is a confirmed fire.They will not respond unless it is out of hours and no one is on site to confirm a fire.
2)Like wee brian, I went to a fire(not a fatal) which cost £15 million 17 years ago,which went ignored because the security guard kept re setting the alarm without investigating.Members of the public alerted the brigade when they noticed the fire coming out the 9th floor windows.

[messy]

1)Fire services, in the quest to reduce false call outs, are not interested in turning up to this type of risk unless there is a confirmed fire.They will not respond unless it is out of hours and no one is on site to confirm a fire.

Pip

Be careful here. Each Brigade has it's own policies about UwFS and attending AFA calls. Some, as you say, may not turn out at all, or only at certain times. Others, such as London, still attend but with a vastly reduced attendance.

As for not checking- why have AFD unless you are gong to take at least some action if it operates?

[Pip]

1)Fire services, in the quest to reduce false call outs, are not interested in turning up to this type of risk unless there is a confirmed fire.They will not respond unless it is out of hours and no one is on site to confirm a fire.

Pip

Be careful here. Each Brigade has it's own policies about UwFS and attending AFA calls. Some, as you say, may not turn out at all, or only at certain times. Others, such as London, still attend but with a vastly reduced attendance.

As for not checking- why have AFD unless you are gong to take at least some action if it operates?

yes of course,not all fire services yet adopted that policy,should have said 'some'