Fixing false alarms

Martin Green provides a technical guide to improving fire detection performance in the healthcare sector.

There is no getting away from the fact that false alarms waste fire service resources, cost the economy millions of pounds each year, and that repeated incidents can pose a risk to safety by causing complacency towards what could be genuine alarms. As part of any fire and risk plan, false alarms should be a key consideration.

In this article, we cover fire and risk management for healthcare facilities, including some of the issues known to cause false alarms. Plus, some of the more technical aspects that need to be considered by the responsible person(s) in a healthcare building.

False alarms are mostly caused by three events – malicious acts, incorrect alerts but with good intent, or poorly maintained equipment. In the UK, 19,566 false fire alarms were reported in the year 2019–20 with 500 of these in NHS hospitals alone. During the pandemic, this number increased, as hospitals struggled to cope with emergency department attendances and delayed operations. This increase has added to the strain already being experienced by health services and firefighting resources. These unnecessary calls divert firefighters away from real emergencies and contribute to cancelled appointments for NHS trusts all over the country.

To reduce the number of false alarms, healthcare facilities must take measures such as implementing regular maintenance, protecting their fire detection devices, and enforcing effective smoke-free policies.

As part of the Fire Protection Association's continuing commitment to increase fire safety awareness across the built environment, a number of informative feature articles are available to read on our website.?You can read the full article here.