How important is Regular Fire Alarm Maintenance?
In this article you will learn both what Fire Alarm maintenance involves, and why regular maintenance is so imperative to your company’s fire safety.
We will discuss the legal requirements you, as a business owner/ responsible person should uphold and maintain, as well as how often checks should be made and the risks you take in the circumstance that you do not carry out the basic level requirements as given by your Fire Risk Assessment.
More specifically BS 5839 recommends that your fire alarm and/or alarm system should be checked and serviced by an accredited professional at least once every 6 months. At A&E we recommend that companies using more complex and larger scale fire alarm systems are serviced and inspected at least quarterly.
Another reason it is incredibly important to undergo regular fire alarm maintenance, is due to false alarms. In 2014, the magnitude of false alarms became so bad that the London Fire Brigade launched a charging scheme that helped to recover costs from buildings, such as hospitals, schools and airports where their false alarm record was poor. In 2014, it was estimated that false alarms were costing the Brigade around £37 million each year. Whilst in comparatively smaller costing, false alarms may cause companies a lack of earing due to their staff being out of the office on a regular basis, it has meant that larger scale organisations such as the Fire service have lost unbelievable amounts of money trying to pick up the slack.
What does Fire Alarm Maintenance involve?
Fire Alarm Maintenance is the upkeep of your fire alarm systems, by order of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This details the importance of maintaining a working fire system in all buildings.
Before a fire alarm system can be designed the building risk must be assessed and a system must be specified. This is usually determined by the authority responsible for enforcing the fire safety legislation or by a fire risk assessment. Once a fire alarm category has been confirmed, Fire Compliance Services design and install a fire alarm system to meet your requirements and budgets in accordance with BS 5839.
One way you can self-maintain your fire alarms, is by taking time once a month to press and hold the Test button for 5 seconds until you hear the beeps. As well as this, you should vacuum the detectors/alarms every six months. This helps keeps dust and other compromising materials out of the detector, which then ensures that no false alarms will be sounded. Moreover, the changing of batteries within your smoke alarm should be done every six months to ensure there is no way your building is left without working alarms.
Fire Alarm Maintenance Legal Requirements:
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, it is a legal requirement that your commercial property should have their alarms checked by a British Standard professional every six months. This is the most crucial part of your fire alarm maintenance commitments. As well as this, it is also important to self-check the alarms every week to make sure the batteries are working, and the system is ready for the eventuality of a fire.
Keeping your fire alarm clear of compromising material such as dust and dirt particles is another important aspect of your fire alarm maintenance, as they can create regular false alarms. These alarms can then result in loss of income when staff are constantly out of office, as well as callouts from the fire service which left the London Fire Brigade £37 million each year.
At A&E Fire and Security, we provide incredibly professional servicing of all you fire and security needs. This includes the upkeep of your fire alarm systems and devices. A&E Fire and Security Ltd. have an internal Quality Management system, verified and approved by BAFE and NSI, with whom we also hold accreditations. This means that it is the responsibility of all employees to ensure that Quality Processes and their associated procedures are understood, implemented and maintained.
How often should Fire Alarm Systems be serviced?
Fire alarm systems should be serviced by a British Standards professional every six months. We also recommend that you check internally every week or every month to ensure batteries are working and the system is in order. At A&E, we are BAFE accredited in respect of Fire Alarm and Detection Systems. This certifies our activities in the design, installation, commissioning/handover, maintenance and verification of fire detection and fire alarm systems to SP203-1 and BS5839-1 and BS5839-6.
You should replace your Alarm device battery every year, however, if you have a ten- year Alarm, you should replace the whole unit every ten years.
Service your Fire Alarm System before disaster strikes!
It is important to see how imperative Fire Alarm maintenance really is. As the Responsible person, you must follow the standards expressed in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, in order to keep your business or building safe from the possibility of a fire.
Fire Alarm maintenance is one of the most crucial parts of your fire strategy and procedure and there are only a few simple steps to keep them in order. Follow our tips and keep your organisation or residence safe from the possibility of a fire.
There are two main issues that you can face if not regularly and properly maintaining your fire alarms. The first being the probable eventuality of regular false alarms, and the other, the fact that you can cause injury and/ or fatality in the instance that your building has a real fire and you have not properly serviced your fire alarm systems.
Learn more about our fire alarm maintenance services by visiting our Fire Alarm Systems Page, or if you have any questions and would like to discuss your requirements with our experts, we invite you to contact us for more information.