Posted By Vicky Pye I have just receieved a letter from our landlords re: fire warning system. We occupy a floor in a multiple occupancy building. The letter states that the fire alarm is not working & in the event of an evacuation they have dedicated a member of staff to inform us. This has alarm bells (excuse the pun!!) ringing in my head !! They state that this procedure is standard ?? Is this right ?

Posted By shaun mckeever Vicky I have come across this sort of situation before. It is a difficult one when the fire alarm system is not working. Hopefully it is just a temporary situation and the landlord is attempting to rectify it. The problem in the mean time is how to raise the alarm if the building is to continue to be used. The simple thing would be to shut the door and prevent the building from being used but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't go down to well! Of course the advice to building occupants must be to be more vigilant than they might otherwise be, but should anyone discover a fire how will you notify all the other occupants in the building? I have recommended in the past the use of air horns to be sited at every break glass fire alarm call point and for regular patrols to be carried out, usually every half hour, by building security, if this means that the number of security staff have to be increased then this should happen. I also feel that fire marshals should have a role in these situations. They should carry out a patrol of their own workplace on a similar frequency. I certainly don't think that everyone should abdicate responsibility and pass the buck onto the landlord. Responsibility can be sorted out at a later date but for the short term I think everyone should pull together and do their bit.