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Admin  
#1 Posted : 13 November 2007 11:57:00(UTC)
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Posted By Paul
All, need your advice/opinion on the scenario.

Office occupies entire building except for the lower grnd floor, which belongs to other company (it is often unoccupied). Office and the lower ground have separate fire panels connected together, in addition a fire panel of adjoining building is also connected. Now due to refurbishment in lower grnd and other issues (likely to go on for long time) false alarms started to occur quite often. Some time ago it was decided to disconnect the office fire panel from the other two, as it badly affects business. However the final decision has not be made so far.

There is a number of pros and cons to the situation, however any ideas on the best solution of the situation.

thanks,
Paul
Admin  
#2 Posted : 13 November 2007 12:28:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By Ashley Wood
Paul, other users in the building need to know if there is a fire in another part of the building as this would endanger them if it went undetected, so the short answer is 'yes' they do need to be linked. This sometimes occurs when a tenant has a fire extinguishing control panel as part of a system protecting an IT room of similar, but again this should be linked to the landlords panel.

Regardless of the problems affecting business due to false alarms the landlord has a duty of care and a responsibility for the entire premises fire alarm system. If you are suffering false alarms then the route cause needs to be addressed and investigated.

Hope this helps.
Admin  
#3 Posted : 13 November 2007 16:50:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
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Posted By Fred Pratley
Depending on the age/type of alarm fitted, there may be built in options you could take advantage of, depending on your physical set up. Presumably your problems stem from accidental activation of smoke detectors rather than fixed break glasses?

Our Fire panels are located in security so they are permanently monitored.

During the day we have the facility to place a 5 minute investigation delay on all smoke detectors -this means that if one is activated by dust or something, the panel alarm sounds in security, who then have 5 minutes to deal with it, or the full alarm sounds.

If a genuine problem arises during the day, then anyone can still sound the alarm as normal, and also more than one detector activating automatically sets off the alarms.
Out of hours, everything is instaneous.

If you can't do this, then fix the cause as sitting above a possible fire hazard without an alarm is asking for problems.

Regards Fred
Admin  
#4 Posted : 15 November 2007 00:30:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By ivorfire
Paul,
There is a requirement under Fire Safety Order Article 22 for Co-operation and co-ordination which I have taken the liberty of copying below.

As the other posters have covered there is a need to be able to give warning etc and therefore the fire alarm panels should be linked etc.


Co-operation and co-ordination
22. —(1) Where two or more responsible persons share, or have duties in respect of, premises (whether on a temporary or a permanent basis) each such person must—



(a) co-operate with the other responsible person concerned so far as is necessary to enable them to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed on them by or under this Order;

(b) (taking into account the nature of his activities) take all reasonable steps to co-ordinate the measures he takes to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed on him by or under this Order with the measures the other responsible persons are taking to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed on them by or under this Order; and

(c) take all reasonable steps to inform the other responsible persons concerned of the risks to relevant persons arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking.


(2) Where two or more responsible persons share premises (whether on a temporary or a permanent basis) where an explosive atmosphere may occur, the responsible person who has overall responsibility for the premises must co-ordinate the implementation of all the measures required by this Part to be taken to protect relevant persons from any risk from the explosive atmosphere.


If there is a nuisance factor of unwanted signals this can be explored with other party under this article and good business practice.

If there is difficulties with this you may be able possibly to get advice form your local fire brigade fire safety office. However, they will probably expect fire risk assessment etc to be completed and this being a significant findings etc be duly recorded.

In the last month or so the guidance for enforcement has been issued as per web site;

http://www.communities.g...guidance1enforcement2005


The extract from the new guidance of enforcement for FSO for Article is also copied;

Article 22 – Co-operation and co-ordination
102. Where more than one responsible person shares, or has duties in respect of a premises
(whether on a temporary or a permanent basis), each must take all reasonable steps to
co-operate and co-ordinate with the others in relation to the measures they take, and
inform the others of the risks to relevant persons arising out of the conduct of their
undertaking.

103. In premises where an explosive atmosphere may occur the responsible person who has
overall responsibility for the premises must co-ordinate the implementation of all the
measures to protect the relevant persons.

104. The intention of this article is to require the responsible persons and others with
analogous duties to take all reasonable steps to co-ordinate the measures they take to
comply with the requirements under the Order.

105. If there is a failure to co-operate or co-ordinate between responsible persons (or those
with analogous duties) the enforcing authority may need to consider enforcement
action to resolve any difficulties.

Although effectively repeated things it may give people the change to be able to copy and use the respective guidance for other fire matters.

Hope this helps.

Admin  
#5 Posted : 15 November 2007 09:14:00(UTC)
Rank: Guest
Admin

Posted By Paul
Guys, thanks for your information. I was reluctant to disconnect fire panels in the first place, but with your help I think I will be able to stand my ground on this.

Rgds,Paul
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