[Help] Communal fire alarm advice.

[Gabbafella]

Morning all.

I can't seem to find the answer online so I'm hoping there's a fire fighter or alarm specialist on here who can help.

The communal fire alarm went off last night in my flats, a few of us went down to the lobby to find that someone had set it off by burning food. But while I was there, one of the residents entered the code to disable the alarm.
He's nothing to do with any fire service or alarm company and he doesn't have permission from the company who own the building as far as I know.
I don't know how he's managed to get the code but he didn't perform a sweep of the building to check for fire which to me seems rather dangerous when deactivating the alarm.
Does anyone know the legalities for being able to access/disable the alarm. No pun intended, but it's quite alarming to think the lives of me and my family are in the hands of some random resident who can turn of this system as he sees fit.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Ask the question to the company that manages the building, or the building owners.

 

[Gabbafella]

Ask the question to the company that manages the building, or the building owners.

I've sent them an email this morning.
They seem to be run by aspiring politicians though, very good at not answering questions put to them.

 

[The Optimist]

It definitely does not sound right that someone unappointed is resetting the alarm so you should definitely raise it with the building management. However once reset, assuming it was reset and not turned off, if there was a fire it would go off again.

As an aside it’s quite unusual that you have a communal fire alarm. In most blocks of flats each flat has its own standalone fire alarm system and nothing communal.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

My old neighbours were always burning food, so annoying!

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

 

[BN9 BHA]

As an aside it’s quite unusual that you have a communal fire alarm. In most blocks of flats each flat has its own standalone fire alarm system and nothing communal.

Are you sure? I thought it was the opposite.

 

[BN9 BHA]

I've sent them an email this morning.
They seem to be run by aspiring politicians though, very good at not answering questions put to them.

Are the contact details of the alarm company displayed in the hallway/ lobby?
Maybe send them an email or call them.

 

[Gabbafella]

As an aside it’s quite unusual that you have a communal fire alarm. In most blocks of flats each flat has its own standalone fire alarm system and nothing communal.

We have both. A hardwired alarm just outside the kitchen and then the main one in the communal areas.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

Surely if it's a communal alarm it goes straight through to the FB anyway? If they turned up and someone had disabled the alarm they'd do their fruit!

 

[Gabbafella]

Surely if it's a communal alarm it goes straight through to the FB anyway? If they turned up and someone had disabled the alarm they'd do their fruit!

That's what I assumed. Any communal alarm would have a direct link to some form of response team. The fire brigade never show though, so maybe there has to be a prolonged alarm?
When I left for work it was beeping as if put into stand by mode or something.

 

[clippedgull]

Surely if it's a communal alarm it goes straight through to the FB anyway? If they turned up and someone had disabled the alarm they'd do their fruit!

Only goes through to the fire brigade if a fee is paid. If your council/HA/landlord etc decides they don't want to pay then it's up to the residents to call the fire service when the alarm sounds.

In a 15 storey council block that I used to live in, there were so many false alarms that four of us were trained by the fire service to reset the alarms if it was an obvious false alarm.

 

[Gabbafella]

I've had a response from the building owners, they've said they'll "investigate the matter" which is about as vague as I was expecting.

 

[clippedgull]

That's what I assumed. Any communal alarm would have a direct link to some form of response team. The fire brigade never show though, so maybe there has to be a prolonged alarm?
When I left for work it was beeping as if put into stand by mode or something.

Again, only if fees are paid. Otherwise it's up to you lot to call the fire service/alarm engineers out.

 

[Yes Chef]

Wouldn't the control panel in the lobby display where the alarm had been set off? You can usually pinpoint the area, and focus immediate concern around there.

 

[The Optimist]

Are you sure? I thought it was the opposite.

Most relatively new blocks of flats will only have standalone fire alarms in each flat and not a communal alarm, as this is what is recommended under current guidance. This is because only the occupants of a flat with a fire are expected to evacuate. The reason for this is that if a communal alarm went off every time someone burnt their dinner people would probably start ignoring fire alarms and also having a large number of people evacuating simultaneously in the middle of the night actually carries a reasonable risk of injuries from trips and falls (both points especially apply in large tower blocks with 100 flats or so).

There is likely to be detection within the common areas for the purposes of operating smoke ventilation, but not an alarm.

 

[Kuipers Supporters Club]

MP and local Cllrs

They will be all over it (rightly) after what happened recently

If the bloke turned it off - maybe it wasn't going for long enough for the FB to be called?

 

[Baldseagull]

Morning all.

I can't seem to find the answer online so I'm hoping there's a fire fighter or alarm specialist on here who can help.

The communal fire alarm went off last night in my flats, a few of us went down to the lobby to find that someone had set it off by burning food. But while I was there, one of the residents entered the code to disable the alarm.
He's nothing to do with any fire service or alarm company and he doesn't have permission from the company who own the building as far as I know.
I don't know how he's managed to get the code but he didn't perform a sweep of the building to check for fire which to me seems rather dangerous when deactivating the alarm.
Does anyone know the legalities for being able to access/disable the alarm. No pun intended, but it's quite alarming to think the lives of me and my family are in the hands of some random resident who can turn of this system as he sees fit.

The alarm panel will show which detector has been activated, if the person who reset the alarm knows the layout, he could confirm with that resident that it was just a bit of burnt toast in that flat. No need to sweep the building, this is only done if a full evacuation is required. The fact he had the codes suggests he has had some instruction, and it would be easiest to just ask that neighbour I would think, how come he has those codes?

 

[Bulldog]

I am surprised at the variations.

In my flats, only 5 stories, each flat has 1 smoke and 1 rate of rise detector that alarm in that flat only, ensuring that burnt toast doesn't bother anyone else. Then the communal areas have detectors that activate sounders in those areas and in each flat.

The fire panel in the reception area indicates the area where the alarm was activated and has the reset code written inside the doors by the alarm company, so we can cancel it ourselves once happy that it is a false alarm.

This doesn't call the fire brigade or anyone else and it doesn't disable the alarms, just reset it so, if it was real it would immediately sound again.

 

[Bones]

That's what I assumed. Any communal alarm would have a direct link to some form of response team. The fire brigade never show though, so maybe there has to be a prolonged alarm?
When I left for work it was beeping as if put into stand by mode or something.

You might want to check that he has actually reset the alarm, and not just muted it. The beeping could be an indication that it is still in alarm. The majority of panels will recognise a 2nd alarm and activate again, but not all.

 

[bn1&bn3 Albion]

That's what I assumed. Any communal alarm would have a direct link to some form of response team. The fire brigade never show though, so maybe there has to be a prolonged alarm?
When I left for work it was beeping as if put into stand by mode or something.

Definitely make sure it has been reset.

To turn the fire alarm off at my workplace you need to mute, then reset the alarm system. If you just press mute, the control panel will keep beeping.