In order to undertake the process of designing a Fire Alarm system for a building it is necessary to have a sound understanding of the relevant design standards, the legal framework surrounding building safety legislation and product applications. From an initial design brief, Spear will develop a suitable Fire Alarm design that complies with the relevant standards and any specific building integration requirements.
All fire systems must be regularly tested and maintenance is essential as it will prolong the life of a system and discover any faults that may occur. A system that is not maintained cannot be guaranteed to protect life and property.
It is essential that all fire systems are regularly tested and maintained in order to prolong the life of the system and ensure any faults are promptly rectified. A system that is not maintained cannot be guaranteed to protect life and property.
The Fire Safety Regulatory Reform Order, which came into effect on October 1, 2006 has consolidated existing fire regulations into one piece of legislation which requires a ‘responsible person or persons’ to implement a fire risk assessment of the premises. Employers are therefore responsible for their own fire safety risk assessment and must judge what fire precautions are necessary to protect their employees. Specific requirements set out in a Fire Certificate can no longer be relied upon.
The only reliable and measurable means of ensuring that your existing fire detection and warning system remains compliant and fully functional is to instigate a plan of regular routine maintenance and testing. This must be carried out by a ‘competent’ person and supplemented by weekly user tests.
BS5839-1:2002, as amended in 2004, recommends weekly user tests consisting of the operation of one manual call point to ensure that the alarm panel successfully processes the fire signal and operates the alarm sounders, with a record of each test being recorded in the company’s log book. This should be combined, for Grade A systems, with periodic inspection and testing of the system by a ‘competent’ person based on a risk assessment. The recommended interval between these inspections should not exceed six months.
The regulations recommend that during the periodic inspection, the following items are checked and recorded:-
- The system log book should be examined to ensure that recorded faults have been rectified
- A visual inspection of the building structure and occupancy level should be verified in order to ascertain compliance
- The standby batteries should be disconnected, inspected and load tested
- The output functions of the control panel should be verified via the operation of one detection device per circuit
- The operation of all sounders should be verified, while sound pressure levels should be measured upon appointment of a new servicing organisation
- All controls and visual indicators should be energised
- Each automatic fire detector and manual call point should be tested over a 12 month period
- Upon completion, a service certificate should be issued to the responsible person
