Burnt toast

My daughter is a vegetarian and spends a lot of her time hunting down food that is suitable to eat. Living in student accommodation it isn’t always easy for her to spear a spring roll or to bring down some falafel that is in full flight across the veldt of the Junior Common Room. I’m mixing my international culinary terms, my geography and metaphors but I think you’ll get my drift!
    
In order to keel up her calorific uptake my daughter often resorts to that tried and trusted friend of student kind, the toaster. Now, having been bored to tears and near to losing the will to live because of me banging on about the fire industry she knows better than to insert a slice of her favourite loaf into the toaster if it’s near a smoke detector. But she’s unusual in this regard as most students don’t understand the possible consequences of this type of action, the younger generation what are they coming to? Remember they will be funding our old age via their taxes and…off on another tangent here so better return to the subject at hand!
    
So the less well educated student burns the toast, the smoke detector goes off, the fire and rescue guys come running, and a lot of time and money is wasted. One thing to point out here is that the smoke detector has done its job. I mention this as many people attribute false alarms to equipment malfunctions when in reality a lot of them are about premises management. But it’s not only students that burn the toast, cooking in general in the NHS is a major cause of false alarms, approximately 45 per cent of all reported, and a lot of these are also down to toasters!

Help at hand
Help is, however, at hand via the revised CFOA Policy for False Alarms and Unwanted Fire Signals, written in partnership with the Fire Industry Association. The revised policy attempts to clarify the relationship between those responsible for the protected premises, the fire alarm service provider, the Alarm Receiving Centres, (ARC) and the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS). It ties in the responsibilities of all those involved to their accountability under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order.
    
The policy sets out a distinction between what happens at the premises, as it is at this point that the alarm signal can be considered a false alarm if it’s not caused by a fire. Once the signal leaves the premises and reaches the fire brigade it becomes an unwanted fire signal – unwanted because FRS want to respond to real fires. The policy looks at this ‘fire’ signal and how it can be dealt with at the various stages before it reaches the FRS.
    
So back to our less well educated students, they burn the toast and then what happens? Well the smoke alarm goes off, but under the new policy the first time there is a signal from the premises FRS will attend. But if, when they arrive, it turns out to be a false alarm the premises will receive a letter asking them to register to the policy. Part of the registration will involve FRS, the premises and the maintenance provider discussing the best way of managing the problem, which can involve system changes if appropriate or, in most cases, a change in the management of the system. So in future if there is a fire signal from the system, there should be a management system in place to investigate the signal before it is transmitted to the ARC or FRS.  
    
If it’s a confirmed fire then the signal is passed to the FRS and they arrive with the appropriate level of response as dictated in their Integrated Risk Management Plan. It is not envisaged that they complete a full search of the premises – the fire panel should give them the location of the signal and they should be able to check ‘safely’ if there is a fire or if it’s a false alarm.

Taking action
If at a later date another false signal occurs and no management plan is in place and the false alarm reaches the FRS as an UwFs then the FRS can instigate the changes in response level given in the plan, but will still work with the premises to improve the system. If nothing is done and false alarms from the premises continue to still reach the FRS then they will look to take action against the premises under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order.
    
The policy recognises that in many cases an alarm at a protected premises never reaches FRS as it is handled by the management systems, either it was proved to be a false alarm and the call was cancelled, or it was a fire but was dealt with by the ‘first aid’ firefighting equipment.
    
For signals from Alarm and Receiving Centres the policy presupposes that the on-site checks have already been carried out as part of the contract between the premises and the ARC, so FRS will arrive as if it’s a fire. If it turns out it isn’t, the same action as above begins.
    
Social alarm providers (Telecare) are treated separately in the policy, but they still have to confirm that there is a fire either by call back or their management plan. It also deals with the 999 call to the brigade. All of the above scenarios are covered in flow charts that form part of the policy.

Third party certification
The policy is clear that competent persons have a big role to play and that third party certification is the best method of providing proof of competence with regard to fire alarms. Currently the only schemes recognised in the policy to prove competence in fire alarm systems are BAFE SP203 and LPS 1014.
    
So if you know any students or healthcare staff who like to toast bread, either persuade them to eat spring rolls or falafel or make them aware of the possible consequences of their actions! Oh and while you’re at it remind them about their taxes keeping me in my old age...