Early last week (24th July 2011) more than 100 patrons and 40 staff were evacuated from a spa in Bath after the fire alarm sounded. Employees of Thermae Bath Spa, thinking this was a real emergency, acted quickly and called the fire service to the scene. Eleven fire-fighters from Avon Fire and Rescue attended the call but quickly deduced that the fire alarm system had been triggered due to an electrical fault in the fire system.
With so many people in the building we should be thankful that this was a false alarm but it goes without saying that an evacuation on this scale costs a lot of money in lost revenue and resources, not to mention a lot of relaxing days out were severely interrupted.
Discovered early, the fault in this fire alarm system could have been fixed before the alarm was triggered. Proper maintenance, regular testing and an intelligent fire systems are all key to preventing this kind of situation.
Maintenance
Expert maintenance of your fire alarm system is a must, whether it’s an addressable fire alarm system with multiple zones or a simpler conventional fire alarm system.
You should only engage the services of reputable engineers with the proper qualifications for the task at hand. Maintenance of your fire system includes the testing of all control equipment, including control panels, power sources and batteries; testing all the devices in your system, including smoke detectors, heat detectors, manual call points and sounders; and checking the wiring and condition of the system.
Your engineer should also be able to advise you about your compliance with British Standards and if any changes need to be made to your system.
Testing
An appointed person in your building should be responsible for testing the alarm system at least once a week. A full test of the system will throw up any potential issues and these can be dealt with before they become a real problem.
Intelligent Fire Alarm Systems
Most addressable fire alarm systems today have an impressive operating system that can handle faults and errors in the system intelligently. With the right choice of system you will be made aware of any faults before they become an issue and at the very least you will have an error log of events and faults that you can check periodically.
Discount Fire Supplies’ range of fire alarm systems represent the best fire detection on the market today for businesses in the UK. The Simplicity Micro Addressable Fire Alarm System, for example, has an impressive 2,046 event history – storing all alarm, fault and system events.
Discount Fire Supplies sell a range of fire alarms, fire alarm accessories and much more. Browse our online shop or contact us for a quote today.
