Fire Alarms

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This post has been removed because it contravened our guidelines.

Responding to Peter Wood and Kevin Bridges.

Unfortunatley, and with no reference to previous writers there appears to be a lack of knowledge in the market with regard to fire alarm warnings for the deaf and hard of hearing.

To kick off this document let me state up front thate there is no "standard" in force at present for the deaf or hard of hearing.

Firstly, Section 18 of BS5839 Part 1 2002 refers to fire warnings for the deaf and hard of hearing - the rest of the 160 page BS5839 document refers to EN54 standard installed fire alarms. Secondly, Section 18 is a recommendation only and is subjective to risk assessment.

Thirdly, to my knowlege, and in an offordable package, there is no product on the market which adheres to ALL the recommendations of S18. of BS5839 Part1 2002.

The only UK LAW which is applicable to wireless based deaf pagers or personal receivers is the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 regulated by of Ofcom. This is law and appears not be taken into consideration when the BS5839 was written. Let me explain, one of S18's requirements is for the deaf persons pager to be able to transmit back to the central transmitter in the event of a fault or failure on the system. Under Ofcoms PABR on-site and Wide area liencencing, the maximum power a pager type device can utilise and send message back to the transmitter is only 0.05 watts!

Dependent on the environment and also considering the weight and price of such a device the transmission of this would be approx 50 metres and arguably a waste of time for the deaf person working in a site wide or campus environment. Also, being pedantic how can a transmitter transmit or receive when it itself has been broken and failed?

I believe, the key points from S 18 and missed by the general public, is a requirement for all Deaf fire systems to be Ofcom licenced (across all the system, not partly licesed) and that the system shuld not be reliant on disc or volatile memory - .

A previous writer mentioned Deaf Alerter, to my knowledge, they operate on an on-site PABR self select licence and are not, under their licence terms allowed to transmit and receive, they only operate one way - transmitting to the pager.

All of the main deaf pager suppliers are developed from the older message paging environment and operate on on-site or wide area paging, so legally they are liable under law to adhere to their licencing restictions. In my opinion the best frequency to opearate a deaf fire warning system on is Ofcoms PABR Distress Alarm frequency - quoted by ofcom "for the protection of persons and property"

If any queries check this out with Martin Dench of Ofcom

Wireless Alert Solutions Ltd

www.wasol.co.uk

0780 1336646

Kevin Bridges summarises things very well.

One point I'd raise though is that strobes and beacons can cause more problems than they set out to resolve, and to execute a thorough intallation in all areas can be costly.

A more elegant solution is a product such as Deaf Alerter, which is a BS5839 2002 Part 1 system specifically designed for deaf people, and which complies with the BS stated preferred method of providing deaf people with a fire warning using a vibrating device.

The installation of such a system is far easier than alternatives, and the vibrating device can provide a text message to show the location of the fire alarm.

Although it may not be pertinant to the original question, it's worth noting that businesses that need to make provision for deaf or hard of hearing employees or visitors in order to comply with the DDA (effective from 1st October 2004) should consider the need to have such equipment installed.

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I completely agree with Kevin and Osbornes' answer to the problem, however I believe the point is missing in that an evacuation of the premises must take place whenever the Fire Alarm is actuated and sounded in any particular area, so does it really matter if the alarms are heard by viewers at least they would understand the reason for the interruption of the service.

we regularly recommend hearing impaired empoyees are provided with a vibrating pagers tied into a fire alarm system. Whilst this may not the ideal solution it could be incorporated as part of a managed strategy.

I have photo-sensitive epilepsy and any strobe style lighting would cause me severe problems, maybe even leading to me passing out or at best becoming disorientated. In a fire evacuation that is not desirable?

We have yellow 'revolving' lamps at certain strategic points in the building and, while a little uncomfortable to look at, they do not cause the same severe symptoms as strobe and so are safer to use.

Hope this helps.

Philip

I used to work at Teddington TV Studios and the fire alarms in the studio and control booth were red flashing lights. Throughout the rest of the building they were normal audible alarms.

I'm sure you can use flashing beacons (not strobe lights) for use where deaf people need to be evacuated.

I have also seen a system whereby the normal flourencent tubes switch on and off every 2 or 3 seconds in a an area where deaf people are working. This is also used for door bells.

The area of fire safety, including means of escape, fire fighting and fire detection are governed by the Fire Precautions Act 1971 and the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997(as amended).

The aim of a fire alarm is to ensure that persons in the workplace are alerted to an outbreak of fire well before it becomes life threatening. The warning system should set in motion a planned evacuation of the premises.

The design of means of escape, and the provision of other fire safety measures such as a fire alarm system, should be based on an assessment of the risk to the occupants should fire occur. The assessment should take into account the nature of the building structure, the use of the building, the processes undertaken and/or materials stored in the building; the potential sources of fire; the potential of fire spread through the building; and the standard of fire safety management proposed.

The factors which have to be considered when assessing what standard of fire alarm is to be provided will vary widely from one set of premises to another. Therefore the appropriate standard will need to be considered on a case by case basis.

Health and Safety Executive guidance provides that in small workplaces the means of raising the alarm may be simple. For instance, where all employees work near to each other, a shouted warning 'Fire!' by the person discovering the fire may be all that is needed.

Where employees are dispersed more widely and it cannot be guaranteed that a shouted warning will be heard, a manually operated sounder (such as a rotary gong or handbell) or simple manual call point, combined with a bell, battery and charger, may be suitable.

In larger or more complex buildings, a suitable electrically operated fire warning system, with manual call points positioned both on exit routes and adjacent to final exits, should be installed. This should have sufficient sounders for the warning to be clearly heard throughout the workplace. The sound used as a fire warning should be distinct from other sounds in the workplace and, where background noise levels are high or employee's may have hearing impairments, it may also be necessary to install a visual alarm such as a distinctive flashing or rotating light to supplement the audible alarms.

All fire alarm systems should comply with BS 5839 (Fire detection and alarm systems for buildings).

Therefore audible alarms ought to be provided in larger buildings.

However, if a risk assessment can justify some alternative means of warning in the event of fire that meets the overriding principle (i.e. to ensure that persons in the workplace are alerted to any outbreak of fire well before it becomes life threatening) such means of warning are likely to be justified.

I would suggest that the entire building be fitted with audible alarms, including the tv studio's. The alarms fitted in the studio should be supplemented with flashing beacons etc, where it is operationally necessary to isolate the audible alarms i.e. during live transmissions. However, they should only be silenced when absolutely necessary and this should be clearly documented in a risk assessment.

Where the risk assessment determines that audible alarms will be silenced on occasions, alternative means of warning should be provided. Employees should receive information and training on the occasions when audible alarms will be isolated and on the alternative means for warning of fire that have been put in place to cover those situations.

If the building is a designated one to which a fire certificate applies then the fire certificate will stipulate the means of warning in the event of fire. Any changes that have been determined following a risk assessment would need to be notified to the local Fire Authority.

Kevin Bridges Dip2.OSH, MIOSH

Associate

Regulatory Unit, Litigation

Osborne Clarke

Strobe lighting I would have thought would be unacceptable as you can't warn epileptic people not to look at something that is telling them to evacuate.

Flashing lights (Revolving types) would need to be investigated as I'm not sure the legality.

And why would anyone want to stay in a TV studio if it was burning down? If a fire occured the marshals would walk into the studio and tell the occupants to leave (Either that or a very bad tempered firefighter would pull them out!). Surely there is something in their lease with you that means they abide by the building's safety rules that you could enforce?

You can't compromise safety for the sake of re-recording a tape.

If there is absolutley no joy, then we have a profoundly deaf person working for us and we have a vibrating alert system. It's a small pager that she wears all the time she is on the premises and whenever the alarm goes of (Even during testing) - it vibrates and alerts her to the fact that the alarm has been activated. I'm not sure how much it cost but it is very effective.

We have a multi-tenanted building in London. A new tenant is building a TV studio on one of our floors and has asked that all alarms in the area are made inaudible. Is it an acceptable alternative to use strobe / flashing lights for the various alarms that are in situ?