Fire Alarm Maintenance

If a Fire Alarm System is deemed to be necessary in a building then it is a legal requirement that a maintenance plan is in place, otherwise, this is a breach of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. 

Quote from the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005:

"Section 17 - Maintenance:

(1) Where necessary in order to safeguard the safety or relevant persons the Responsible Person must ensure that the premises and any facilities, equipment and devices provided in respect of the premises under this order.. are subject to a suitable system of maintenance and be maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair."

The word "must" in this section of the legislation means that is obligatory, failure to comply with this is an offence. 

Part of BS5839 specifically relates to the maintenance of FIre Alarm Systems and is a widely accepted code of practice for safely and competently completing maintenance works. It is the most widely used document and details processes, methods of working & guidelines that when followed offer an effective solution to managing the maintenance of any given Fire Alarm Systems.

Following the recommendations in BS5839 can be used as a proving method for the responsible person to show you have taken the responsibility and care to ensure the Fire Safety systems are "maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair" as per the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

To test the fire alarm system, our engineers will require access to all devices on the system over the course of the testing year & at times we will also need to ring the bells/sounders.

Although we understand this can cause some disruption our engineers work around your day to day use of the property to reduce any disruption by discussing areas they plan to access, planning around meetings or use of specific areas and discussing when it is suitable to ring the bells (should it be required).

Upon arrival, to site our engineer will discuss the testing process with you and work with you as much as possible to ensure any disruption is kept to a minimum as we understand you have other things to focus on.

Under the requirements of BS5839, (for a Part 1 System or a Grade A Part 6 System) a minimum of 2 visits are required per service year.

This is because of a specific clause written in the standard which states intervals between inspection/servicing visits should not exceed 6 months.

If visits are completed at intervals of greater than 6 months the system would be deemed as non-compliant, therefore companies offering 1 visit a year is not-compliant.

As part of our service contracts you are granted access to our 24/7/365 emergency call out service.

An emergency telephone number will be provided (by a sticker placed on your fire alarm panel) which you can call any time, day or night. You will be put in contact with an engineer who will discuss the issue and try to resolve the matter over the phone. If this is not possible an engineer will be in attendance ASAP in line with the requirements of the standard which is normally on-site within 8 hours of the call being made.

This service offers you complete peace of mind & support, knowing that if there was a false alarm or fault with the system you have the support needed to prevent

BS5839-1 requires the following to be completed by the "user":

• Every 24 Hours:
  • Ensure that the Panel is checked to confirm there are no faults on the system. If faults are found the user should record all faults or damage in the log book and should arrange for repair ASAP.
• Every Week:
  • The user should operate a different call point every week (so if there are 20 call points it would take 20 weeks to test them all) and record the test in the log book. 

Please Note: The person undertaking these tests should have a full understanding & training on how the system operates before completing any tests. 

If you do not feel competent enough to complete these tests, SAFE can either provide training or complete the weekly testing on your behalf. For more information on this service please click here.

There is absolutely no change or relief in Fire Safety Legislation due to COVID-19 , it is the same now as it was before the pandemic. So yes, you do still need to arrange your Fire ALarm servicing as you would before, twice a year at 6 monthly intervals.

Our staff have been defined as key workers and we are therefore offering our services "like normal". Of course, our engineers will remain socially distanced at all times and wear the relevant PPE.