Posted By Phillip Such delays can be employed but obviously have to be justified by the risk assessments. Obviously it would be best if the cause(s) of false alarms could be eliminated. no direct hotel experience of such delays

Posted By Flic Are you sure that this is what is meant? It is quite common to have a delay between the activation of the fire alarm and calling the firs service. This does indeed allow you to investigate and discover whether the alarm is false. However, I would not delay the evacuation of the people. Flic

Posted By Jay Joshi We have a system on our site (R & D Labs and Offices) where the first 3 minutes are an alert alarm with an intermittent audible alarm, and then it rolls over to full evacuation mode with a continuous alarm. There is a comprehensive procedure and all employees are made aware of this at induction and we have quarterly planned evacuations so that all are reminded/trained. I very much doubt that a 3 minute delay would be acceptable as an outcome of a fire risk assessment for sleeping accomodation, unless you only have a couple of rooms to check and there is staffing to do that at an instant, including instant access to the occupants room.

Posted By Messy Shaw This is very common in Hotels and poses few problems if managed correctly (with a suitable AFD system, a trained fire team and adequate procedures). I have known delays of up to 7 minutes in one case. The process is 'permitted' by BS5839 part 1. Any actuation for a manual call point or a second head will throw the alarm into full evac. Compare this managed risk of a delayed system to the risks having scores or hundreds of punters evacuating at night - several times a year - when some pillock has decided to smoke in the bedroom or has left the bathroom door open before showering, thereby accidentally causing a unwanted fire alarm. There is no need to discuss any plan to introduce a system with the fire service as long as it's fully risk assessed and the results of the FRA review are recorded. If done correctly, the punters don't get disturbed, the fire service don't get called out to a false call, and the management get content customers who want to return. So everyone's a winner!

Posted By A Campbell Noticed a repetitive automated message requesting inspector sams to report to the office at Liverpool St station.... likely activated for instances such as fire detection system?

Posted By Messy Shaw SBH - BS 5839-1:2002+A2:2008 (35.2.7 Filtering) does allow for a delayed evacuation. An alarm activation will alert staff who have a set time in which to acknowledge the actuation. Then there is a predetermined time period to allow for a search in which time an evacuation is not carried out. An evacuation is only instigated after the time period has expired, a manual call pint has been activated or in some cases, a second fire alarm detector has been activated. These systems are known as staff alarms and are used widespread as a tool to prevent unwanted actuations of the fire alarm. With regards to the voice alarm at Liverpool Street Station - it is Inspector Sands (not Sams) which is the key word for a fire alarm actuation. Mr Sands is also often the codeword used when Theatre fire alarms activate.

Posted By Adam Worth SBH You could also argue if we call the fire brigade for a false alarm, they are delayed in responding to a real fire at the local school!!!! Also as pointed out in a real fire - mulitple detectors would normally trigger or someone would break a call point.. I'm sure at the Eden project a very friendly voice informed everyone a call point had been activated and was being investigated - there was no need to take action (unless we could see a massive fire I suppose) but should be prepared to take furthe action.. Maybe I wasn't listening and it wasn't a call point looking at the above???

Posted By SBH ok ok I get the point

Posted By John Donaldson I have a degree of sympathy with the hotel in wanting to implement a delay, provided management systems are in place. I once spent a night in a hotel where the alarm was activated 3 times by guests who were drunk. On the 3 rd occurrence very few people actually evacuated. Had there been a real fire I shudder to think of the consequences. I might add the hotel concerned did refund the cost of the nights accommodation and also called the police to deal with the drunken guests.