Dealing with False Fire Alarms | Part Three – Damage & Design

In the last two parts of this series we have looked at how changes to procedure, accidental interference and the environment can all have an impact on the amount of false fire alarms experienced. This third and final article looks at potential damage to a fire warning system that had previously worked well and discusses how poor design, lack of knowledge and planning poor installation can all lead to regular disruptions through fire alarms. If you are concerned at the amount of false fire alarms in your premises, don’t despair! There are solutions.

Mechanical Damage

Like poor maintenance, most mechanical damage should result in the generation of a fault signal. However, there are exceptions to every rule, and it is possible for damage to the system to result in an unwanted alarm. There are proprietary guards available, to protect detectors in areas where they may be very prone to damage, the use of metal sheathed, or similarly protected cables, complying with the British Standard recommendations, should make alarms caused by cable damage so rare as to be not worth considering. If you are concerned that damage to your system has increased false fire alarms, contact the installation company or another qualified installer to thoroughly check and repair the system. Aside from false fire alarms, if something is wrong with your fire warning system, it could malfunction at a time when it is very much needed.

Poor Design/Installation/Equipment

Regrettably, poor design, poor installation and a poor pre-handover test regime are far too common. It is essential to ensure that the company engaged to undertake the design and installation are capable of understanding the special needs of a fire alarm and detection system.

Many building services companies undertake the installation of a fire detection system alongside other services. Modern contract practice encourages this, buyers like to have "only one backside to kick" when placing their service contracts. The down side of this apparent convenience may be that the company knows how to wire up the system efficiently, and can make all the lights illuminate, and the bells ring, but does not understand fire science, or the many possible causes of unwanted alarms which exist in the average building.

Buyers should always satisfy themselves that the design and equipment to be used will achieve full compliance with the relevant British and European Standards, and that their designer can properly evaluate the many routes that there are to achieving compliance.

Systems should always be tailored to the particular circumstances which will exist in the building, when it is in use. An installation company that is approved by the Loss Prevention Council for work of that type, is a very good safeguard and well worth paying a little extra for if necessary.

Poor Software

The last type of cause to consider is a software fault. The evidence suggests that this type of cause may be on the increase, and appears to be particularly prevalent in systems which are driven by, or are part of, a general building management system. It is well worth thinking twice about the perceived gains available from linking a fire system in with other systems whose reliability may be less guaranteed. Fire systems, when working correctly, should hardly ever require an operators attention.

One ploy often used by inexperienced designers is to compensate for their lack of knowledge by over-provision of detectors. This route will almost certainly lead to a proliferation of unwanted alarms and the more detectors there are on a system, the greater the number of unwanted alarms. A good designer aims to maximise the effectiveness of the devices on the system without resorting to providing any more than the minimum number required. This also has the happy effect of minimising the whole life cost of the system.

The rate of unwanted alarms which has been quoted as acceptable is; one unwanted alarm per two hundred devices, per year. It may still be considered as too high, but how does your system compare?

Before system installation

The best time to reduce false alarms is before the system is installed. Modern, top-of-the-range systems employ reliable, logic-based, systems which compare the signals received by detectors to the known output signature from the early stages of a fire. This can be a very useful tool for reducing unwanted alarms in difficult circumstances. However, if a buyer wants a system like this, it will need to be specified, or the pressures of competitive tendering will ensure that someone supplying something cheaper and less suitable wins the contract.

Far too many businesses put up with disruptive false alarms, when they can be eradicated if the right approach is used.

Hopefully this series of articles will help you to eradicate the cause of false fire alarms in your premises. Complete Fire Safety Management’s aim is to make the process of becoming fire safe, straight forward and, to use our expertise in fire risk assessment and fire safety management to guide you through each step, resulting in your premises meeting all legal, insurance and ethical fire safety considerations. If you have an issue with your fire alarm systems, or would like to know more about the Complete Fire Safety Management route to fire safety in your premises, please contact Peter Gyere on 020 8668 8663.