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A new and tougher policy to combat false alarms from automatic fire systems was launched today at a gathering of senior fire and rescue officers.The CFOA Policy for the Reduction of False and Unwanted Alarms was unveiled at the first day of Fire & Rescue 2008 in Liverpool.
It replaces the previous CFOA policy which only concerned remotely monitored alarms, which was felt to discriminate against alarm receiving centres as unwanted fire signals from them are only part of the problem.
The document has been revised to take into account the introduction of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, the limited adoption by fire and rescue services of the previous policy, and concerns from the fire industry about inconsistent approaches to unwanted fire signals from individual fire and rescue services. In addition, Unique Registration Numbers (URNs) are no longer essential to the implementation of the new policy.
The policy also distinguishes between false alarms, which it treats as a fire safety issue for the responsible person under the RRO, and unwanted fire signals which are passed on to fire and rescue services and are a drain on their resources. It says “it is essential that a consistent national approach to reducing false alarms and unwanted fire signals is developed”.
Although issues mainly on call filtering by alarm receiving centres are still unresolved, CFOA feels that these can be implemented later and should not delay the introduction of the policy.
Speaking at the launch, Iain Cox, chair of CFOA’s national fire safety committee, said the aim was convergence and consistency. He urged fire and rescue services and the industry to “look at the CFOA policy and ask yourselves: ‘why not?’ rather than ‘why?'”