The Importance of Fire Alarm Servicing and Maintenance

Having a suitable, working fire alarm system is a legal requirement for all businesses in the UK. This is particularly so if the environment or facility is large and/or stores high-risk substances such as chemicals, and/or houses high-risk activities such as cooking.

Fire Alarm servicing ensures your life-saving system is performance-ready whenever you need it to be.

It can be so easy to tick the box of fire system with a fully-equipped and professionally-fitted fire alarm system ü but is this the end of the story – no.

It is crucial to have your fire alarm system serviced at least twice per year. This is because it is such a critical part of your fire risk management strategy.

This blog post looks at the legal obligations of having a fire alarm system in your building, the recommended best practise of servicing and maintaining them, and how you should go about implementing your responsibilities.

British Standard 5839

This is the government standard that covers fire alarm systems. It states that every fire alarm system should be tested by a qualified and experienced professional at least twice per year. When choosing a fire alarm engineer or company to service your system, you should check that they are fully compliant with British Standard 5839 and aware of all the legal requirements under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRO). This is the main piece of legislation that governs fire safety – for more information on your responsibilities under this piece of legislation, read of article Fire Safety Guidance Changes, October 2023. These twice-yearly maintenance checks should include the testing and servicing of all the elements of the system including; detectors, batteries, covers and so on. Your engineer should ensure all detectors are working and clean, whilst making sure all batteries are working, covers are in place and the control panel doesn’t show any error warnings or issues. This isn’t an exhaustive list but gives you an idea of what to look out for when your fire alarm engineer comes to service your system. It is further recommended that the system is tested at a local level, on a weekly basis – more on this shortly. Regular testing ensures every element of the system is capable of working as intended and saving lives in the event of an emergency.

What is involved in servicing a fire alarm system

There are three main sections of a fire alarm service or inspection;

• the condition of all the elements/component parts,
• the sound (visual where applicable), and
• the connectivity.

It is essential that all the different parts of the system are in a good condition and are still suitable for the requirements of the environment. The checks aren’t obstructed in any way and are clean and in good working order. All the sounder, light elements where in use, are checked to ensure they are in full working order. And finally, that connectivity across the system and particularly with the control panel itself.

The final stage of a fire alarm system service or maintenance visit is the reporting. Reporting, via logbook, is essential and must be updated every time a check is made, whether that be by a professional or as part of your regular weekly checks.

Contained with each update recorded must be:

• The date, time, duration, and cause of each fire alarm trigger,
• Any faults found and action taken to rectify them,
• The date and time of any disconnections,
• The date and time any alterations were made, and
• Any evacuation drills conducted using the fire alarm system.

How often should I service my fire alarm?

The bi-annual frequency of servicing required for fire alarm systems, as required by BS5839-1 2017, is a result of the integral role a fire alarm system plays in saving lives. This could be increased to a quarterly check being required depending on the risks identified in the fire risk assessment for each specific environment.

Test it Tuesday

Self-testing of fire alarm systems is widely encouraged under the fire regulations mentioned previously, but what does this mean?

The fire service started a social media campaign in 2015 to encourage everyone (domestic and commercial) who has a fire alarm system in their property or environment, to test them every Tuesday.

This was for 3 reasons:

• • This meant that testing happened on a weekly basis, ensuring every system was in working order in the event of an emergency
  • If a fault was found on a Tuesday, it gave the company and the fire alarm companies the opportunity to get it resolved as quickly as possible – if you test on a Monday, it can get overlooked with the business of the week or the engineers’ companies could be busy with callouts etc.
  • Making the tests the same day each week gets users of the building used to the tests taking place.

In commercial settings, it is recommended that users test one manual call point and one smoke detector each week on a rotating basis. This will ensure everything gets tested and any errors dealt with in good time. It is important that the signals being received by the control panel are all working correctly and that all personnel within the building can see or hear an alarm as part of the weekly tests.

The recording/logging of these weekly tests, and any resulting issues, will mean all maintenance is available for review as part of the annual fire risk assessment. But, more importantly, it means any faults found can be addressed and resolved quickly, with a record of them clear to see.

Choosing the right servicing and maintenance company

As we touched on earlier, it is a legal requirement to have any commercial fire alarm system bi-annually tested and serviced so that faults can be identified, remedial measures taken and preventative maintenance can be applied. The UK Fire Regulations that cover the installation and servicing of a fire alarm system require that a competent and reliable person must undertake the job and;

• understand the different types of fire alarm systems and be familiar with all the various models involved;
• identify the grades and categories of system; and
• demonstrate strong in-depth knowledge of the British Standard BS 5839.

The frequency of the inspections of a commercial fire alarm system can vary depending on the risks identified in the fire risk assessment. The greater the risk identified, the more frequently the alarm system should be serviced, normally quarterly. However, we would always recommend that any part of your fire alarm system that is showing signs of damage or concern of any kind, you get a professionally competent alarm engineer to inspect it as soon as possible. This work, like any other type of inspection or maintenance work, should be fully recorded in the logbook. This will ensure the fault is recorded, the action taken is recorded and the remedial work can be tracked – all resulting in a fully working system.

Summary

The British standards (BS 5839) that covers commercial fire alarm systems states that every system should be inspected by a competent professional twice per year. In addition to this, self-testing on a regular basis should be carried out and recorded in the same logbook as the professional servicing. The fire risk assessment for your specific environment should be considered when planning and scheduling fire alarm system maintenance and checks. This will outline the risks concerned and will suggest the frequency with which the fire alarms should be tested and maintained to keep them in good working order in the event of an emergency. If you have any further questions, or would like to talk to a professional fire alarm servicing company, call OHEAP on 0330 999 8786.