Village hall fire alarm

[TFEM]

Poking my nose in when I shouldn't after finding out the local village hall has been told they have to have a full FA system with call points at each exit costing lots of money. Plus annual maintenance.

Hall equals 30mtrs X 8mtrs, war time timber building, chair store off one corner (3 X 3), kitchen off another corner (3 X 2), toilet block off third corner (4 X 4). Two X double door exits plus 2 X single door exits. Electric wall mounted heaters. No fryer in kitchen.

FRA recommended heat detector for kitchen plus wireless smoke alarms that talk to each other so if the store or toilets "caught light" the situation would not escalate undetected. Total cost c. ?200 for 10 year battery units. Test and record results = no ongoing maintenance fees.

This is not my area of expertise and certainly is beyond what the management committee are capable of understanding (no disrespect intended) but what is wrong with the simple solution and what piece of legislation states the need for the all singing and dancing costly option?

Nobody is wanting to do things on the cheap but confirmation that the simple solution is not adequate and why would be appreciated. There are various guidelines for village halls available online that all state low risk, basic halls, probably don't need full wired in system.

Thanks in advance. If I'm completely wrong, please be gentle!!

BTW......the alarm company is a well respected company not one of your national ROM's.

John

[kurnal]

First it would be a mistake to install a mix of systems. Part 6 alarms (stand alone linked detectors) are for domestic use. If installing an electrical alarm in the main hall then it would be crackers and wrong not to make any required heat detectors part of this system, e.g. As part of an L5 system.

As to whether an electrical fire alarm will enhance the level of fire safety of relevant persons could be argued either way and fire risk assessment could be used to provide an outcome of a full  alarm system, manual gongs or a shout of fire. Any of these outcomes could be satisfactory, the key is the fire emergency plan for the building, who uses the hall, how is it used, is anyone in charge such as a hirer, what instructions are available on how to keep the premises safe from fire and the action to take in case of fire, how the alarm is raised and what people should do if they discover a fire or hear the alarm whatever that is. If this is achieved by an electrical alarm so be it - it never ceases to amaze me how many assessors or alarm companies will default to a full L1 system, it's easy and lucrative for them but if they had ever sat on the committee responsible for fund raising maybe they would be a bit more imaginative and work it through.


Worst outcome "What's that noise?" "Not sure I think it might be the fire alarm"

Better outcome  " ladies and Gents there appears to be an emergency please leave the hall immediately using the exits and assemble in the car park whilst we check the toilets and call the emergency services"

My opinion only.

[Bruce89]

As Kurnal states the key thing is how is the hall used. I can see the only possible justification for any AFD would be if the hall is also used by youth groups (cubs, brownies etc.) for sleeping accommodation whilst on some kind of excursion which does happen. Unless of course we start talking of property protection.

[JT]

I've recently encountered the same query. No afd required for the village hall I viewed but the fire alarm contractor quoted L2 approx 5k.
The local scouts once a year camp in the hall, so I recommended someone stay awake as a night warden. For 5k plus ongoing costs I didn't feel it reasonable to install this and a simple process seemed sufficient.
Or tell the scouts no camping.