Staff alarms are becoming virtually normal practice in very large installations with significant numbers of smoke detectors. They may be entirely appropriate in some premises but not in others. Fire and rescue services love the use of staff alarms in relation to summoning of the FRS. One (happily recently retired) SFSO even threatened to use the powers of enforcment to require res care establishments in the county (ies) to investigate fire alarm signals at all times before summoning the FRS, including at night when there were few staff on duty. I did offer to go chat to the magistrates about it, as it would be an interesting diversion for them from fining unsuspecting motorists for speeding on the highway, but I still await the carrying out of the threat with bated breath.
One assumes the SFSO was trying to reduce the number of attendances to unwanted alarms. Many years ago a fire officer explained to me that he loved unwanted alarms because the Government's calculation of the need for number of appliances and men at any fire station was based on the number of times that station was 'called out' and not what type of incidents they were 'called out' for.
Therefore 'unwanted alarms' kept the call out level up and the Government couldn't reduce the staffing level of that fire station. He further explained that his attitude was shared by most full-time firemen, but not by retained firemen since they found unwanted alarms a waste of their time. Full time personnel found them an interesting diversion in an otherwise quiet shift!
I wonder if anyone can advise what the current thinking, at various levels of the F&RS', is regarding the 'benefits' to the FRS of attendance to unwanted alarms?
