Chief Fire Officers Association ACOP for Summoning a Fire Response via Fire Alarm Monitoring Organisations

In July 2014 the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) updated (2010) a protocol and guidance document for the Reduction of False Alarms and Unwanted Fire Signals.

Over many years the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) have been working with partners to reduce the number of Unwanted Fire Signals (UwFS) that are generated from premises protected by automatic fire detection and fire alarm (AFA) systems.

The document aimed to ensure improvements across the sector, including the design of fire alarm systems, a consistency in approach across the FRS, promoting industry awareness leading to better servicing and maintenance, and greater compliance with fire safety legislation. The Protocol has formed the basis for many FRS policies on this subject and has led to many examples of notable practice with industry partners.

In response to this guidance from the CFOA, each regional FRS has put in place fire appliance response procedures when dealing with alarm receiving centres (ARC). For example London Fire Brigade have adopted the following:

From 1 January 2014, the Brigade will charge for attending persistent false alarm calls generated by automatic fire alarm systems and fire detection systems.

The Brigade will be recovering costs for the tenth false alarm attended at the same site within a twelve month period and for all subsequent false alarm call outs.

This will not apply to domestic properties or care homes. The charge for each attendance will be £295 +VAT.

With the above in mind, the recommendation is that where an ARC is linked into a fire alarm system, it is best practice for all new fire alarm monitoring contracts to include false alarm filtering arrangements. This guidance has been put in place by the CFOA in agreement with representatives from the industry of Fire Alarm Monitoring Organisations (FAMO). This will impact on your fire emergency plan which should be reviewed.

The main parts of the guidance are as follows;

• FRS, ‘call back’ alarm filtering is limited to the FAMO waiting for a maximum of 30 seconds for an answer from the premises (unless a longer period is otherwise justified under a risk assessment). If the phone is answered at any time within the 30 seconds, the filtering process commences. If the phone is not answered within the 30 seconds, the call back process ends and the signal is relayed to the FRS.
• Ensure that the premises are aware of their need to have a competent person at the premises within 20 minutes of the time of call so that they may take over from the FRS in the event it is a false alarm incident.
• Filtering arrangements should be supplied to the FAMO by the Responsible Person/owner (through the fire alarm maintainer where necessary). This must include either on-site filtering arrangements or a request for a call back facility. Unless justified otherwise under a risk assessment, the call back should be limited to 30 seconds. This should apply to all new connection contracts and all existing connections that receive 2 calls or more in any rolling 12 month period.

Please follow the link here to obtain the documents.

If you need assistance interpreting the impacts of the CFOA ACOP or do not know your local FRS response procedures, or if you require further advice on this issue and guidance on what filtering arrangements should be adopted within your building, please contact the S₂ Partnership’s specialist fire team.

Richard Hennelly