Fire Alarm Test; what do you know
The fire alarm test is not the same as the fire drill, which is often executed every six months simulating a real emergency, the fire alarm test is a test carried out weekly by a responsible person as part of the maintenance schedule to ensure that all the manual call points are working and will be active in an emergency. The test is a 10 second ring of the fire alarm through the activation of one of the manual call points in the building, after which the fire alarm panel is checked for accurate reading of the location of the manual call point trigger and the sounders.
- Before carrying out the weekly fire alarm test, a notice should be placed at the front reception located at a strategic place to enable awareness of the fire alarm test.
- Email could be sent to each tenant or employee to inform them about the test
- Team leaders could be used to reinforce awareness of the fire alarm test taking place
- The reason for the advance information or notification is so people do not panic when they hear the alarm go off.
- The 10 second ring limit is also to ensure that the employees or tenant are aware that if the alarm rings more than 10 seconds then the alarm is signaling a real emergency and emergency procedure steps are to be followed in evacuating the building
- All the weekly fire alarm test should be recorded to form part of the management tools of proactive preventative measures adopted
- The recording should include the time and location of the manual call point and any observation harvested from the fire alarm test.
Ultimately it is better to know the systems are all working than to wait and find out in a real emergency.
- Place a Notice of the test out for public knowledge
2. Place the Fire Alarm Panel onto Test Mode
3. Locate the Manual Call Point
4. The Manual Call Point
- Press the silence button on the Fire Alarm Control Panel after 10 seconds
- Read the location on the panel and make sure it corresponds to the test area
- Press reset on the Fire Alarm Panel after the information has been gathered
- Turn the Fire Alarm Panel from test mode
- Record findings
Some Fire Alarm Panels are connected to a central monitoring location, who then monitor the fire alarm, if such system is in place, the central monitoring location will have to be informed about the weekly Fire Alarm Test for them to place the system onto a test mood as well and then after the test they would have to be informed to remove the system from the test mode. As a safety precaution the central monitoring unit will request a time duration for the fire alarm test, which should be an hour to be safe, after the hour given they central monitoring station presume the system is actively back on line, even if not informed so by the team on the ground caring out the fire alarm test. The team on the ground should however inform the central control station soon after the fire alarm test is over.
In instances where maintenance work has to be carried out on the fire alarm panel, the central control station must be informed and be given the time duration that the maintenance work will take, if an extension of that time is needed the central monitoring station should be informed about it as well and the central monitoring station should be informed when the work is done, so they can activate the system.
If the central monitoring station is not informed and the alarm goes off, they will assume it is a real emergency and inform the fire service who would be dispatched to the location, if it turns out to be an avoidable false alarm, the fire service may fine the company in question for waste of resources.
Always know you are safe by the proactive measures you put in place, just don't assume you are safe..
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