Maintaining fire-detection and warning systems; Vital to fire safety management
Fire-detection and warning systems are a vital component of fire safety management which cannot be ignored. The system consists of automatic smoke and heat detectors; break glass call points; the control panel and fire alarm sounders.
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The purpose of fire-detection and warning systems is for the prompt and reliable detection of fire, to alert the occupants so that evacuation can begin and to enable occupants or other people to call Fire Service to attend to the fire and extinguish it. However, these systems have become ‘decorations’ in many private and government buildings.
A number of these systems are not functioning. Regular testing and periodic preventive maintenance are absent. They have been left to ‘rot’. Even basic smoke detectors installed in offices beep for several weeks without anyone recognising that their batteries need to be replaced.
When you visit most government offices and private buildings, you will observe that most of the break glass fire call points glasses are broken and fire panel dusty, indicating that they are not working and no one can tell the last time the system was tested or inspected.
State and private facility managers spend huge sums to buy and install these systems only to abandon them. The reason may be attributed to lack of competent persons to undertake regular testing and maintenance of the systems or it is not a priority to management to ensure that the systems function.
The issue of fire safety in high-rise buildings was the subject of discussions a few weeks ago. However, one of the ways to ensure the safety of occupants in high-rise buildings in the event of a fire outbreak is detection and sounding of alarm to alert people. What will happen if the automatic fire-detection and warning systems are not functioning?
Facility management safety protocol requires that various components of automatic fire-detection and warning systems are inspected and tested weekly, monthly and yearly by competent persons and the results recorded. This is different from emergency evacuation drills.
Facility managers should ensure that fire-detection and warning systems installed are functional because no one knows where a fire will start from. In a high-rise building or any other building with many rooms and sections, a fire can develop unobserved (for example store rooms) where nobody will notice and raise an alarm. It will be difficult to notice if fire detection and warning systems are not working and the fire spreads to other parts of the building.
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The Ghana National Fire Service must be commended for intensifying education on fire outbreaks to save lives and property. However, the bulk of the job on fire safety management rests on the owners and managers of facilities.
The neglect of fire-detection and warning systems creates a gap in fire safety management, thereby putting the lives of people and property at the risk of fire.
The writer is a Health and Safety Practitioner. E-mail :simpsonisaac@hotmail.co.uk