What do we need?

[Mike Muscroft]

Hi.

I am responsible for H&S etc at my church and I am looking at our fire protection at the moment.

My problem is that I really need to know what the minimum requirements for protection are as I have so far had 3 companies quote me for a simple addition of a bell and 2 more call points to our existing fire alarm system to a complete rip out and re install of a modern system for 4000 GBP.

Our present old system consists of a panel (2 zones?), 3 bells and 3 call points. It is a manual system I think you call it.

Our church was built in the 80's and consists of around 20 rooms/areas spread out of which one is a kitchen and one is a boiler room located under the stage area in the hall. We have 6 final exit nominated fire exits and emergency lighting over all internal doors that come on if the power fails.

Could anyone give me a rough idea of what equipment our fire alarm should consist of please.

Thank you.
Mike.

[John Webb]

Dear Mike,
Don't rush into this.
Firstly you will have to comply with the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 from October this year. (I assume you are in England and Wales - NI and Scotland will have similar needs as well.) You will need to carry out a risk assessment of the church according to the 'Places of Public Assembly' guides - the Small/Medium one if your church has a capacity of less than 300; the Large if 300+. (See www.firesafetyguides.comunities.gov.uk)
Secondly you only need alter your system if your risk assessment shows that the present one is inadequate to give everyone in the building a clear warning of fire.
Thirdly there will be advice available from the Churches Main Committee later in the year.

Looking at your description of your building, you need in brief:
A manual alarm call point at every exit;
Consider detection for any area where a fire could develop unseen and possibly  affect an escape route;
ensure the alarm is audible in all areas when they are being used - eg when music is being played;
add flashing beacons so that anyone with impaired hearing is made aware of an alarm.

I assume the alarm system dates from the construction of the building, which makes it twenty years old or approaching that. The control panel will therefore be at or near the end of its life of circa 20 years. There will be advantages in installing a new alarm panel in terms of reliability and easier servicing, but the wiring may be adequate and not need renewal.

Re the emergency lighting - you need to ensure that all escape routes and any room without natural lighting is equipped at the very minimum. You may also need to improve and update exit signage - all these points need to be considered as part of the risk assessment.

If you are an Anglican church, don't forget you will need to take alterations through the Faculty process.
Hope the above is is of help to you.

[Mike Muscroft]

Hi John.

Thank you so very much for such a full reply, it is just what I was hoping for.

I am in the middle of reading the guide you mentioned and I am now trying to figure out how to put some kind of fire risk assessment form together in which to present my findings.
Should you have such a form I would greatly appreciate it.

In my mind I had formulated that we need some kind of smoke/heat detectors to cover areas that are not in use and your very explicit reply backs that up. I will (if you don't mind) use your comments to back up my case with our church committee in view of fitting the required devices.

Fortunately our building is a Methodist one and therefore is all on one floor level (ground), so I don't have to worry about upper levels etc.

Bless you.
Mike.

[John Webb]

Dear Mike,
Your church has a fire advisor, Colin Domville. He can be contacted via your national property office. Look too at the Methodist church website; Colin has a check list there for risk assessments. He and I are working together to rewrite this and the Churches Main Committee 1998 fire precautions guide to take into account the new legislation and to make it applicable and available to all churches. But not all the applicable guides have yet been published so it will be a little while before the rewrite is available. So I repeat my initial comment - don't rush too quickly into alterations until more advice is published.
Regards,
John

[Mike Muscroft]

Hi John.

Bless you for the info...

I have looked at the present set of documents and they are handy, but it would have been great if an example FRA form was included.
I have partly designed one using MS Excel which needs a little fine-tuning as I put it together before the new regs where introduced, I guess I'll stick with what I have.

Regarding the original post I made, I shall gather several more quotes together in view of upgrading our system to include smoke/heat detectors.

Many thanks for your help.
Mike.

[John Webb]

Dear Mike,
In my opinion you need to start off your Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) with a brief background to the building detailing it's construction, history, use and existing precautions. You have a complex building from your description; I suggest a floor plan should be used as part of the FRA.
For each room list: use, potential sources of fire and possible means of spread to adjacent areas (and any control measures needed), means of raising alarm, audibility of alarm, fire-fighting equipment, signage (including 'Fire Action' notices) and any other comments.
Overall you need to include notes on the maintenance of all equipment, regular checks on the building and how the FRA will be kept under review eg annual and when any building work is done.
If any third party hires your facilities regularly or occasionally, then they are legally responsible for conducting their activities in a safe manner, and this needs to be incorporated into any contract of hire. The regulars may need to conduct their own FRA of their activity and you and they will need to exchange information on the fire precautions in the building. Casual hirers may need to be briefly shown the building facilities when they arrive.
Regards,
John

[Mike Muscroft]

Hi John.

Many thanks. That certainly points me in the right direction.
As our present alarm system is very old with little true protection, we have decided to renew.
All rooms will be fitted with smoke/heat detectors to ensure that a fire breaking out in a far room does not go unnoticed. We are also considering flashing sirens to take into account our many disabled users and visitors.

I had covered most areas with my present risk assessment, but the advice you have given me has highlighted some shortfalls which I can now put in place.

Bless you.
Mike.