Property Managers: YOU are Responsible for 50% of Your Fire Code Compliance

Every now and then, a property manager will come up to us at a tradeshow or industry event and say, “We just had our yearly visit from our fire alarm company. So we’re good, right? We’re compliant now, right?”

At that point, we become the bearer of bad news. We then let them know that those yearly inspections from their fire alarm company only account for about 50% of their building’s fire code compliance and fire safety, which is obviously incredibly important and a great start. But, THEY are in charge of the rest… The Other 50%.

The role of today’s property manager has never been more complicated and it’s getting harder every year, as codes change and buildings get more complex. At the same time, their role in fire safety and compliance also grows every year to keep up with those changes. They may also have to make the business case to a board that feels they have higher priority/higher visibility items.?

Because of this, a lot of very knowledgeable and hard-working property managers are still shocked to learn that their fire alarm company only takes care of roughly half of their compliance. After a brief moment of panic (and possibly helping them breathe into a paper bag), we remind them that it’s far better that they get this news from us. Finding out after an inspection from the fire department is definitely the hard way– Because the hard way often comes with fines or other penalties.

What exactly makes up The Other 50% that fire alarm companies don’t take care of? Quite a bit. But today we will walk you through a few of the key parts.

Staff Training

This is the best place to start because it will impact so many other parts of your compliance and your overall level of fire safety.

Your staff needs to:

• Carry out required maintenance and routine inspections
• Spot any discrepancies (i.e. clutter in a garbage room or a door propped open)
• Communicate to your residents on how to be prepared, calm, and organized in case of an emergency situation
• Train any new staff on all of the above

That’s a lot of responsibility! Unfortunately, the fire code doesn’t give you a lot of guidance on how to train future staff. The code only specifies that you need to:

• Train your staff on all emergency procedures, your fire safety plan, and required building maintenance prior to assigning them any fire safety tasks
• Conduct yearly (at minimum) staff fire drills
• Keep the documentation to prove you’ve done both

How you go about the rest is up to you. If you have no idea where to start, you’re not alone. And the good news is we can help! We can train your staff in fire safety/compliance, and we do it in a way that empowers them to train any future staff members. Click here to find out more.

Documentation

Based on our experiences, we would have to say that documentation is one of the most common blind spots in the world of fire safety.

There is a LOT of documentation required to maintain compliance and busy property managers, building managers, and condo boards may not be quite sure what they need to keep on file. Even if they do know, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks with staff turnover or particularly chaotic months.

However, it’s important to remember that it’s not enough to carry out all of the crucial activities like inspections, drills, training sessions, or maintenance. You need the documentation to prove you did it.

If your staff is carrying out regular maintenance activities without documenting them, in the eyes of the fire department, these activities never officially took place.

Integrated Testing

We’ve seen a new focus on integrated testing in recent years, which is a massive step forward in keeping all of our buildings safe.?

In previous years, individual parts of your life safety system (i.e. your alarms, doors, elevators, sprinklers, and more) would undergo their own individual tests to make sure they work properly. However, there was no Standard to ensure that all of these systems worked together in an integrated fashion, or to ensure that each system would trigger the other in the proper cascading series of events.

But integrated tests now ensure this happens. These tests are currently helping to uncover hidden problems that would have previously gone undiagnosed and undiscovered until an emergency situation.

There are two major integrated tests that you need to be aware of:

• Part 7 of the Ontario Fire Code - Quarterly Audits: These need to happen four times a year and will test all parts of your smoke control systems together in an integrated fashion.
• The CAN/ULC-S1001 Standard for Integrated Systems Testing: This goes deeper than Part 7 testing and ensures that all parts of your life safety system are working together in an integrated fashion. These tests are mandatory for any new building or substantial renovation/addition that touches your life safety system.

Both of these tests can be quite involved, with a lot of supporting documentation required. But once again, you don’t need to handle this alone! We are integrated testing experts and can help you simplify a very complex process. Click here to find out what we can do for you, or call us at 1 (800) 281-8863.