Brian

Tom, Thank you for your prompt reply, clearly I need some advice on the FRA, I will be contacting our local fire officer shortly.

Hello, I have a small commercial property, approx 40 sq m, it comprises two ground floor storage units with two small offices above, the offices are accessed via a central fire protected stairwell, all doors are FD30, mains powered smoke detector ( with battery backup ) on landing. fire extinguishers & emergency lighting provided. We have recently had a security alarm fitted, there are spare zones and these have been allocated as fire zones, smoke detectors have been fitted to provide early warning of fire in the un-occupied storage units below the offices. The fire action plan states that anyone discovering a fire should shout FIRE to alert any other occupants in the building, I would like to have a manual call point fitted to one of the spare fire zones, this would allow for better warning of a fire and also enable the system to be easily tested and the staff made aware of what the fire alarm sounds like. I have been told that I cannot install a call point as the "alarm system" is not a "fire alarm" I cannot foresee any risk with doing this and surely any improvement to the system would reduce the risk in the event of a fire. I know the use of security systems being used for fire detection is a grey area at the moment but any advice on this issue would be appreciated.