Posted By Kate Graham
It's normal in most types of workplace (eg offices and factories) to test the alarms once a week - why should an exception be made for nursing homes?

Kate

Posted By Joe Doc
In addition to the BS requirements the sector specific fire safety guidance 'Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Care Homes' reiterates this as a requirement.

I am based in Scotland and I know the above document only covers north of the border, I am not aware of the issued documents in England but would suggest that if you don't yet have it it won't to too dissimilar when issued.

I must admit that I find it somewhat bizarre that anyone with responsibility for fire safety and or health and safety in vulnerable areas such as residential care would seek a lesser standard!

Posted By Ashley Wood
These tests are not just to test the alarms. By activating one call point each week you become fully familiarized with the building and the location of the call points. Additonally you should be asking staff in remote locations to advise you that they could hear the bells/sirens.Check with staff after the test. It is not difficult to 'fix' a fire alarm system to make it look healthy at the control panel. If it is a conventional system with 2 sounder circuits, the last sounder on the circuit should have a resistor installed. This is called an 'end of line'. The purpose is to enable the cable between all the sounders to be monitored for breaks. If you put the EOD across the terminals in the panel rather than at the end of the circuit the visual indication would be that the system is healthy. The sounder circuit could be cut any ware along its length and you would not know about it unless you did the weekly check and asked the staff for confirmation! I know this goes on because of the fire system audit contracts I undertake for clients. Its a cheap way of getting a faulty system back on line and would be done by an unscrupulous engineer.

Also, you could have a faulty sounder and this would not be flagged up on the panel, even with an EOD at the end of the circuit.

Posted By David Kennedy
I think it would be useful to open up this discussion. The nursing home in question has 12 call points. In sequence, each one is used to test the system. When the call point is triggered the intention is that the alarm sounds throughout the home and all the fire doors close. This system has been tested at monthly intervals for the last five years and from time to time there have been false alarm incidents associated with detector heads. During that period, there has never been a failure of any component of the call point-sounder-fire door system. The inference is that this system is reliable. It seems likely that in most situations it is testing that will wear it out rather than service use.

Far from wishing to lower safety standards for the residents of the nursing home, all of which are elderly and some of which are confused, a concern is to minimise the disruption of their lives and the worry that is associated with fire alarm testing, i.e., noise from the sounders and slamming fire doors.

The Scottish document "Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Care Homes, 2006, is a very well written and helpful document with the emphasis, as is its English counterpart, on guidance rather than mandatory requirements. Indeed, paragraph 103, Maintenance of Fire Safety Measures, states, "Experience in individual premises may show that there is a need to vary the suggested frequencies. The examples of testing and maintenance are not intended to to be prescriptive and other testing regimes may be appropriate where this can be justified"

I believe it to be important that health and safety measures should be based on evidence and be subject to risk assessment and wish that regulatory authorities took a similar view. I should be intested in further contributions to this discussion.

David Kennedy

Posted By Red Ones
BS5839 requires not only that a call point is tested each week, but that all call points are tested within a 13 week period, thus if you have 50 call points you will need to average 4 per week.

There is no legal reason to stick to the British Standrad, but if you have a fire and are taken to court (as you probably would be if you do not follow the BS) you will need to justify why you did not follow an accepted standard. You will also be expected to demonstrate how you alternative system was as good or better than the accepted.

Why face the hassle, just do it.

Posted By Ashley Wood
David, How old is your fire alarm system? Is it an addressable system or a conventional zoned system?

Regarding magnetic door closers being fail safe. I am in the process of assessing some sheltered schemes and I have found some that do not work! So it is possible that failures could occur. Lets look at this another way, if you test your system on the 1st of the month and between that test and the next test, 1 month later, the system develops a fault and an incident happens involving loss of life, do you think the monthly approach would be accepted by the inquiry? I know that it is a recommendation that the system be tested weekly by the BSI, but it is in the RR(FS)O and that's the law!

Regarding the chance of residents being caught by a closing door. Adjust the delay on the door closer!

Yes, i do understand that the weekly test will cause some confusion at first, but eventually the residents will get used to it. It must be at the same time each week.

Posted By David Kennedy
Andy Brazier and I are on the same wavelength. It is important to appraise the hazards that attend any proposed control measure.

With regard to Ashley Wood's response, the Regulatory Reform [Fire Safety]Order 2005 does not mandate the weekly testing of fire alarms, so it is not a legal requirement. However, I accept that the associated guidance document does recommend this.

David Kennedy