I have just read a FRA conducted at our care home.

It says that BS 5831-1 recommends that the fire alarm is linked to an alarm monitoring station for the earliest summoning of the fire brigade.

Being that the home is manned 24/7 is this now a requirement as I thought this was for monitoring unoccupied property mainly?

Would a alarm monitoring station automatically contact the emergency services upon activation... if so would this in reality just be similar to a member of staff informing them that we have a fire alarm activation & are investigating the cause?

Thanks in advance

Tony

It's been a legal requirement in new care homes in Scotland for many years and has been in UK wide guidance for healthcare premises and care homes for many years also, all as a result of the multi fatality Rose Park Care Home fire in 2004. One of the many failings that contributed directly to the deaths was a 25 minute delay in calling the fire service after the first detector triggered whilst staff were investigating and doing other things.
Relying on the human factor in this sector is no longer considered adequate and whilst it is not intended to replace staff 999 calls it is there to act as a failsafe and also a timesaver - every minute saved is critical.

We have a managed system where the person in charge must determine/confirm a fire or not within 90 seconds of the alarm or to automatically call the emergency services.

Night shift to call on alarm activation automatically.. without delay.