Rank: Forum user 
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Dear all, A quick question in relation to fire alarms - Once the alarm has been activated for one reason or another should it be muted ? Local fire service advise suggests the alarm is muted until the fire is investigated. This seems a backwards step to me and the reason being to avoid false alarms. Can anyone please advise ? My initial thoughts are to never mute an alarm once it is sounding and wait for the experts to turn up. Kind regards Joe - jh.safety@yahoo.co.uk
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Rank: Super forum user 
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From a purely practical point of view, by design fire alarms are loud, intrusively and occasionally painfully so on occasions. Why prolong this noise after everyone has been moved to a place of safety and why subject fire brigade personnel to this racket? The loud alarm noise will likely hinder communications and be a distraction from what may be a dangerous activity.
What possible reason can there be for not muting, other than if the control panel is in the danger zone?
PS. As it is your alarm, you or your employer should understand its workings and be an expert in the system.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Think about the purpose of a fire alarm, it is to warn people of a fire as part of a pre determined fire evacuation plan.
Why then would you want to silence a piece of potential life saving equipment?
Persons who are on their way out on hearing the alarm will just return once it is silenced.
Whoever gave you that advice is not a competent fire officer.
There are such things as silent alarms that require an investigation prior to "sounding" the alarm but they are usually in larger type complex premises, or buildings that have temperamental alarms.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Absolutely agree Chris. It is not just staff exiting who will enter the building if the alarm is muted prematurely, the alarm sounding also alerts others eg visitors from entering in the first place, using not only the main entrance, but also other secondary ways into the building, where it may not be so obvious that the rest of the staff are exiting from a main exit. There will be circumstances where a false alarm is confirmed and the alarm is muted, but not prior to completing an investigation of the source of the alarm activation.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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The reason for silencing it is so that those who are investigating the alarm are not deafened by it! In my experience one of the first things the fire service do on attending an alarm is ask for it be silenced before they are willing to enter the building.
It has nothing to do with false alarms - if the alarm is connected to a monitoring centre the alarm isn't cancelled by just silencing it, you still get the callout. And you still call 999 just the same.
Evacuation procedures normally include not going back into the building until authorised, even if the alarm is silenced, and this can be tested in drills.
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Rank: Super forum user
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The statement "muted until the fire is investigated" implies that it would be muted BEFORE an evacuation has proceeded. I would not normally say this was a good idea although as with all things fire safety it depends on the type of premises and on YOUR risk assessment.
If what is really meant is to mute the alarm once the evacuation is complete than there's not normally any reason why this should not be done. What you should not then do is reset the alarm system until the cause has been investigated or it may simply go off again.
What type of premises are you talking about?
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Rank: Forum user
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What would you do if you discovered the fire? Your life is potentially put at risk. Unless you are properly trained and have the equipment required then I would never advise any member of staff to look for a potential cause of as fire. Always evacuate and leave the alarm on.
I have also had previous experience of a facility doing this and silencing the alarm. The fire panel showed the alarm raised in the wrong area and it was an actual fire in another area.
The fire and rescue service are there for a reason but sone of their officers are not trained to give advice. Speak to the Fire Safety Officer in the Fire and Rescue Service. If they still go by that advice get them to put it in writing.
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Rank: Super forum user
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I was in the fire brigade and had a simple procedure when attending premises where the fire alarm was sounding.
If I was the first officer in charge to attend I would first find out the location of the fire alarm point actuated, then go to that location. If there was no fire I would order the alarm to be silenced. If there was a fire I would wait until the evacuation roll call was complete and all persons accounted for.
Remember the fire and rescue services have lots of back up, men with BA, water and equipment to fight a fire, communications equipment, ability to make pump crews many if required.
May I ask what have you got in case you silence the alarm prematurely?
I have to say at this point that it is usually quite apparent when there is a fire as somebody usually knows and directs personnel to the location. Not always however.
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Rank: Forum user
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Most modern panels can be set up to give you an investigation delay following activation.
We set ours so that if just a single detector activates during works hours, there is a delay of 5 minutes before the bells sound. However, if 2 detectors activate or someone presses a break glass, it goes straight into "fire", and at night, there is no delay at all.
In practise, i find that you need to leave the bells rining for at least 3 minutes or people will not evacuate properly and if there is a genuine problem, wait for the professionals!
Regards
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Rank: Forum user
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Thank you all for your recommendations they are all helpful in one way or another. Unfortunately it is not a modern panel as some have suggested, which would solve the problem.
A special thanks to son of skywalker and chris burns who has confirmed that the best option is to get clarification from the local fire brigade. The original advise to clarify was to mute the alarm during evacuation and then investigate to avoid false alarms. I suspect this is a money saving policy but in practical terms not always a safe option.
I do understand once the fire brigade arrive if they determine wether or not to turn the alarm off.
Thank you again for your contributions
Joe
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Rank: Guest
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Silence the alarms by all means if you are absolutely confident that there is not a fire. For example if you know a call point has been accidently broken or if a toaster has set off the alarm. Otherwise allow the evacuation to continue. The fire service may silence the alarm as they are using radios to contact each other, if the alarm continues then it can be difficult to hear instructions or information. Also the place from where you make your call to the fire brigade should not be drowned out by the noise of the fire alarm. The operator at the otther end can find it difficult to hear what you are saying.
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Rank: Forum user 
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Are a few minutes of discomfort due to excessive noise really a valid reason for silencing a potentially life saving alarm system?
From experience I would suggest that as soon as an alarm is silenced people tend to think that the situation is under control and it was another 'false alarm'. Leave it until the emergency services arrive and let them deal with it.
One of the weaknesses in silencing an alarm prematurely is that it may become standard practice. We had a situation where a member of staff had burnt some toast just prior to the alarm going off and was on her way to silence it when she was informed that there was indeed a small fire in another part of the premises. So I wouldn't rely on making judgement calls as to what set an alarm off no matter how confident you may feel about the cause of it.
Our staff are under strict instructions not to silence alarms (even if they think they know the cause of it) and this is also the advice of our local fire authority.
FH
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