5 year fixed wire tests - Control Rooms

[Fire Monkey]

I was wondering accross the country how many brigades had got in date 5 year fixed wire report for the building which house their Command & Control Centre. I imagine the difficulty of getting the OIC allowing you to turn off the power and moving the centre to their back up room (presumably in a diferent building). If the electrics are not tested faults could ultimatly lead to a fire that could affect the ability to process emergency calls........

[colin todd]

The policy of most FRS is that they do not comply with the legislation they enforce on the basis that no one will notice.  I could cite all sorts of offences committed by FRS in their own premises.  Ask to get a few FRAs under the FOI Act and you will see them for yourself.  They tend to follow the lead set my DCLG in this respect.

[Mike Buckley]

To a great extent I agree with Colin that the number of Fire brigades who do this is probably minimal, however it is not only the fire legisaltion that is involved it is also the HSAWA any incident involving electricity particularly if someone got hurt would immediately bring in the HSE and we know how they love to get into the Fire Brigade.

Secondly with regard to shutting down Control all Brigades should have a procedure for maintaining Mobilisation if the Control becomes untenable, in the old days this would be a package curtousy of the IRA, nowdays it could be anything. Moving to a back up control should be regularly practiced so that everything goes smoothly. So to carry out the 5 yearly fixed inspection Control will just move.

The other aspect is that although it is a five year test there is no requirement to carry it all out at the same time. Most large buildings carry it out on a phased basis 20% of the installation each year giving a 5 year cycle.