Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Services have announced that from the 10th October 2024, they will no longer be responding to automatic fire alarms “unless a building is deemed to be a high-risk building, or unless a fire has been confirmed, or there are signs of fire”.
This has followed the recent announcement from the London Fire Brigade that they too are cracking down on the wasted time, money and resource spent attending automatic fire alarm activations which have amounted from false activations. Similarly to the London Fire Brigade, Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Services have stated that 99% of the automatic fire alarms they attend amount to be false, and not a real fire scenario. They said that "most alarms are false, often triggered by cooking fumes, dust, or poor maintenance". In February this year, the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service also said more than 99% alerts received from automatic fire alarms were false.
Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Services, as well as Assurity Consulting, advise recording and analysing all false activations to identify patterns and prevent these from reoccurring in future, as well as upgrading older and outdated systems with modern technology.
As with the London Fire Brigade’s new policy, there are a number of ‘exempt’ buildings, specifically high-risk premises including care homes, hospitals, and buildings considered to be critical for local communities. The Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Services website states that, “High-risk buildings are those that specifically house vulnerable people or provide sleeping accommodation for people or, they represent a critical community asset that would be locally, nationally, or internationally damaging if lost or seriously damaged by fire. High-risk buildings are also those that might pose a significant risk to firefighter or community safety or to the safety of animals and the environment”.
The following are exempt from the new policy:
- Private homes/dwellings including residential flats, mobile homes, house boats etc
- Residential care homes, nursing homes, children’s homes
- Sheltered housing for more vulnerable persons
- Schools including boarding schools
- Secure detention facilities, e.g., prisons
- Hospitals and hospices
- Hotels & guest houses
- Buildings housing animals such as zoos, kennels or veterinary surgeries
- High profile heritage buildings such as Blenheim Palace
- Buildings that they have determined represent a high or very high-risk due to the potential community impact.
- Critical community infrastructure such as certain military establishments, telecoms and utilities infrastructure (e.g., pumping stations, substations, exchanges)
There are a few points for consideration that can be taken into account when reviewing this change in process:
- Is there an alarm receiving centre (ARC)/transmission link in place? – rather than automatically calling the emergency services, can they call another member of staff e.g. security, FM etc.?
- Who are the occupiers in the building? – can they be included in the process? It is not uncommon for the occupiers of a multi-tenanted property to be given responsibilities in the event of a fire alarm activation. If there is a lack of building reception/security/building management based on site, the evacuation procedures need to have already given the occupiers responsibilities in managing an evacuation e.g. seek & search, liaising with the attending fire and rescue services, closing of final fire exits behind them to prevent unauthorised access etc. So, adding ‘take note of the fire alarm panel display’ (even by taking a picture) can easily be incorporated into this. This information can then be sent to your staff to easily establish if the activation was on an occupier floor (in which case, they can confirm if it was a real incident or not), or if in a landlord-controlled space e.g. a basement plant room then further investigation is needed upon arrival.
- Where is the property located? – is it nearby to another property you manage that benefits from security presence/on-site maintenance, whereby a security officer/maintenance personnel could head over and assist with the investigation (the property may be evacuating at the time as above)?
- Who is trained on the use of the fire panel? – as mentioned above, it is not uncommon for occupiers to have been given additional responsibilities in unmanned properties. Can occupier Responsible Persons be given training on the use of the fire alarm panel so that they can identify the messages displayed? This can be via a toolbox talk, perhaps during a landlord/tenant meeting.
- Training will need to be given to relevant staff, security and maintenance personnel on their roles/responsibilities and how to safely investigate alarms before calling the emergency services – including identification of simple key indicators of fire without putting themselves at risk e.g. smell of smoke, touching of door handles (to detect heat) before opening any closed doors etc.
- Update your fire safety management documentation and communicate changes to all building occupants.
- Consult with your insurance provider regarding the new response policy.