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Ivor Doyle
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Lisa,
The principle is so that you have one sound to warn relevant persons in the premises that it is a fire warning, which should trigger the evacuation as designed for the premises. Where you have two different types of sounders, persons may get confused with which sound is the fire alarm etc. So a fire alarm must only have one type of sound.
The legislation is Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 fire alarms Article 13. However, the standards dealing with fire alarms is normally British Standard (BS) 5839 Part 1 2002 for commercial premises. The Health and Safety Signs and Signals Regulations (I think 1996) deals with the one sound issue, which is also contained within the BS.
The legislation will be enforced by the enforcer which is probably the fire service, although there are several others. Articles 8 to 22 deals with fire safety duties by the resposnbile person. Usually the employer if it is a workplace. (There can be more than one reponsible person e.g. multi occupied).
Offences e.g. prosecution are dealt with under Article 32 with appeals in Article 35.
Who cares? If there is no clear guidance on fire alarm / evacuation etc you and your other relevant persons might care one day if you have the misfortune of a fire. If there is no warning or a confused one, your relevant persons may be affected by the fire and I bet they will care then! Penalty in this case may be injury or death! Penalty from the legslation, once proven, can be fine, prison or both!
The law is like any other safety law, and its down to the responsible person(s) to implement like any other health and safety issue. Most fire service authorities have a policy that if you experience a fire, a follow up safety audit will probably follow.
Can you afford to take the risk especially when 65% to 70% of all fires in UK are now deliberate. Hope the information helps.
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