June 2021 - Cardinal Fire

Fire Alarm Servicing: How often should you service your fire alarm?

Every workplace must have an adequate number of fire alarms installed to match the needs of the premises and keep everyone safe in case of a fire. If you are the owner of a business, to be able to prove that you have completed your legal duties as a responsible person, you must also have your fire alarms serviced regularly. Fire alarm servicing is done by a specialist engineer and it’s crucial to ensure that the fire alarm system is working properly for longer.

So, how often should you service your fire alarm? Read along to find out!

Fire Alarm Servicing & Maintenance Legal Requirements

When we talk about fire safety in commercial buildings, the British Standard BS 5839 (see our guide on BS 5839) is the place to look for guidelines. Designed by BSI – the UK national standards body, this document covers everything from planning and installation to the servicing and maintenance of your fire detection system at work.

The official UK fire alarm regulations require your fire alarm system to be ‘adequately maintained’. Admittedly, this is open to interpretation. However, the BS 5839 takes this further by specifying that it’s recommended to book a fire alarm service every 6 months.

Since BS 5839 is the standard recommended by the Government, the safest choice is to follow it and have bi-annual fire alarm servicing done by a fire safety engineer. This will help you prove that you have taken the necessary actions to achieve regulatory compliance if you are requested to do so by the authorities.

Why is fire alarm servicing important?

There are three main reasons why fire alarm servicing is important for you and your business: fire safety, regulatory compliance and false alarm prevention. Let’s look at each one in a little bit more detail!

Fire Safety: First and foremost, fire alarm servicing ensures that your fire detection system is working as expected; this can save lives in the event of a fire
Regulatory Compliance: If the relevant authorities come to inspect your business, regardless of whether there has been a fire incident at work or not, you must be able to prove that you have done everything you can to ensure adequate fire safety on the premises. Every time an engineer comes to do fire alarm servicing, this is documented and you can show the paperwork as evidence to support your compliance activities
False Alarm Prevention: Regular maintenance reduces the risk of false alarms. Recurrent false alarms are a nuisance and cause interruptions to the workflow, reducing your team’s productivity, wasting time and in the end – costing your business money

What’s included in the fire alarm service & maintenance?

Fire alarm servicing must be done by a competent person – this is someone who has the necessary knowledge and training to understand how different alarm systems work and identify, as well as rectify issues with them. This is why maintenance should be done solely by experienced fire safety engineers who hold relevant qualification.

The fire alarm inspection will be done according to a detailed fire alarm maintenance checklist, which looks at all of the working components of the system, including call points, connections, batteries, detectors and signalling systems. The engineer will also look for any changes in the premises that could affect the performance of the fire alarm system and they will investigate the cause of any registered false alarms.

At the end of the inspection, the competent person will assess all their findings to decide whether the fire alarm system is fit for purpose or not. They will also give you a document listing the details of the inspection (date, time, name of the inspector), as well as all their findings and recommendations. You can use this as proof that you are following the regulatory guidelines recommended by the Government.

Bear in mind that if your building is considered high-risk, the engineer may also recommend that a fire alarm servicing and maintenance is done more frequently; usually, every four months instead of the general guideline of every six months.

What else is required for compliant fire alarm maintenance?

In addition to the bi-annual fire alarm servicing, your fire alarm maintenance practices should include weekly fire alarm tests and daily maintenance checks by the users. This is usually done by the appointed fire marshal at your workplace.

The daily fire alarm checks only include a quick visual inspection by the fire warden. They will look for things like visible damage, such as missing tags, broken glass and any other sign of tampering with the key components of the fire alarm system.

The weekly fire alarm tests should be a regular, scheduled activity that takes place every week on the same day and time. As part of the process, all manual call points should be checked to see if they work correctly and the fire alarm should be sounded to find out if it can be heard throughout the entire premises. The correct fire alarm testing procedure should be followed to ensure that the fire detection system works as intended in between the professional checks.

If the fire warden spots anything wrong with the fire alarm system, this should be reported immediately and you as the responsible person will have to address this by scheduling a fire alarm inspection even if it’s not due yet. This is why weekly fire alarm testing can change the frequency of service.

Need fire alarm servicing in the Midlands?

If your business is based in the West Midlands and your bi-annual fire alarm service is due or if you need help planning or installing a new fire alarm system, book your fire alarm servicing with Cardinal Fire – your Birmingham-based fire experts. We offer fire safety services to a variety of sectors including education, office, retail, leisure, construction and manufacturing. Our team will be happy to help you achieve regulatory compliance too!

Featured Image: Pexels Licence – Srattha Nualsate

How long is the fire extinguisher life span & how to extend it?

The fire extinguisher life span isn’t a topic that most regular people would need to know about but if you’ve found yourself in charge of the fire safety of a building, you definitely should. As a responsible person, you’ve probably been going through all sorts of information about fire extinguishers from what types of extinguishers there are to how often you need to get a fire extinguisher serviced and even how to protect your fire extinguishers from vandalism. You may have also thought about where to buy a fire extinguisher or if you need to buy a new one to replace your old one.

So, after having learned so much about fire extinguishers already, the next step is to find out what the average fire extinguisher life expectancy is, whether there’s anything you can do to extend it and whether your fire extinguisher will pass its next safety inspection.

Luckily, we are here to give you all the answers you need!

Fire Extinguisher Life Span

According to the current UK fire safety regulations, it’s recommended that fire extinguishers should be replaced every 5 years. CO2 fire extinguishers make an exception to this rule – they should be replaced every 10 years.

Nothing lasts forever, including fire extinguishers. Even if it hasn’t been used a fire extinguisher has to be replaced after a certain amount of time. Generally speaking, whether a fire extinguisher is still good for use depends on various factors including the product quality, the environment it’s in and how it has been maintained. That being said, even the highest quality extinguishers should not be older than 20 years.

Reasons to service/replace a fire extinguisher sooner

Damaged fire extinguishers also need to be serviced and potentially replaced, regardless of their age, as they would no longer be considered safe to use. Wondering how to find out that something’s wrong with a fire extinguisher? Here are some of the most common problems that can occur and that can easily be spotted by someone who is not a trained fire safety engineer:

Missing safety pin
Cracks, rust, bumps on the canister
Missing inspection tag
Broken or missing tamper seal
Cracked, broken or ripped hose
Cracked, broken or missing nozzle
Any other visible damage to the outer shell

Another thing to keep in mind is that fire extinguishers have to be refilled/replaced after every use, regardless of their age.

How to extend a fire extinguisher’s life span

Like every other product, your fire extinguisher needs regular maintenance in order to function well longer. If not taken care of, your fire protection equipment can degrade over time and get damaged as described above. Regular maintenance by a professional ensures that potential issues are spotted and corrected before they cause a serious problem and spares you the trouble of having to buy a new extinguisher earlier than expected.

Only certified fire safety engineers can carry out these inspections and, under the Fire Safety Order 2005, if you are the responsible person for any property, you must book a fire extinguisher service at least once a year. In addition to that, if you want to extend the lifespan of an extinguisher, you must have extensive fire extinguisher maintenance performed every five years.

For more information on what a fire safety engineer is looking for when testing a fire extinguisher and what should be included in your service and maintenance, check out our fire extinguisher maintenance and servicing guide.

How do you dispose of expired fire extinguishers?

If your fire extinguisher has reached the end of its life span, you will have to dispose of it. The good news is that fire extinguishers are largely recyclable. The bad news is that you can’t simply put a fire extinguisher in your usual recycling bin, as it is considered hazardous waste.

You have a couple of options on how to get rid of an old fire extinguisher. First, you can call the local fire department or fire protection company to ask if you can drop it off there. Fire safety professionals will have usual channels set up to dispose of out-of-date fire extinguishers. However, your local companies may not offer such services.

If that’s the case, you can take your old fire extinguisher to the nearest hazardous waste disposal facility or a large household recycling waste disposal facility. Always give them a ring first to see if there are any special requirements on how you should prepare the extinguisher for safe disposal.

If your fire extinguisher has been discharged and it’s empty, you could take it to a steel recycling centre, if you have one nearby. However, you must check if they offer the service and if they do, you should make sure to release any leftover pressure by pressing the lever to ensure the extinguisher really is empty before you drop it off.

Need to have a fire extinguisher serviced anywhere in the West Midlands? Book your fire extinguisher servicing, whether it’s your service, your 5-year service or an emergency service, with the fire safety specialist Cardinal Fire Protection. Simply give us a call on 0845 130 8211 or email us at sales@cardinalfire.net

Month: June 2021

Fire Alarm Servicing: When, Who, How?