False fire alarms can cost companies money in both operation and reputation, as well as putting lives at risk, explains Neil Parkin, Regional Sales Manager (North & Ireland) at Advanced

False fire alarms are a global problem. In the UK, false fire alarms cost more than £1 billion annually.

But the costs aren’t simply financial, repeated false alarms make people complacent, delaying reactions in real fire emergencies, putting lives and property at risk.

They also disrupt businesses and annoy customers.

Repeated false alarms can damage a company’s reputation and may also divert fire and rescue teams away from real emergencies.

With fire services under pressure this is a real problem.  Since 1 July 2023 Scottish Fire & Rescue has adopted a new ‘Call Challenge’ policy whereby it has stopped attending automatic fire alarm (AFA) call outs to commercial premises, such as factories, offices, shops and leisure facilities, unless a fire has been confirmed by the dutyholder.

(This change does not apply to sleeping premises, such as hospitals, care homes, hotels or domestic dwellings.)

This looks like a trend that will spread elsewhere and may extend even further as pressure on fire and rescue teams increases. 

For example, the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service already challenges AFAs by a phone call if they are in lower-risk buildings – about a quarter of the automatic calls they receive are challenged in this way.

It is important to note that the service still sends a fire engine to all AFA notifications in high-risk, occupied buildings.

However, this March Berkshire is undergoing public consultation to change the way crews respond to AFAs as false alarms in the county account for 45% of all incidents, with 99.3% of AFA notifications requiring no action. 

Approach

Addressing this challenge requires a strategic approach.

Starting with a thorough fire risk assessment and precise fire system specification, false alarm management becomes a critical aspect.

Within the fire industry, two distinct strategies have emerged to tackle false alarms, both centred around signal verification.

The first approach leverages detector technology, effectively filtering out false signals at the detector level.

The second method involves analysing signals received at the fire panel, allowing for accurate determination of whether a fire event is genuine.

Forward-thinking manufacturers, such as Advanced, are now integrating these complementary approaches to effectively mitigate false alarms.

Fire Panels

The true power of a fire alarm system lies in combining detector data and an intelligent fire panel.

At its core, this integration enables individual detectors to collaborate in various modes, effectively mitigating false alarms.

For instance, multi-sensor detectors can be switched between heat and smoke modes to validate signals, and multiple detectors can be combined through double-knock or coincidence programming enhancing overall reliability.

Modern addressable panels are powerful computers dedicated to fire detection and can match detector signals with powerful cause-and-effect programming, reducing false alarms.

For example, AlarmCalm false alarm management is available as standard in the UK on Advanced’s MxPro 5 and Go fire panels, as well as it being available on both its Axis EN and Axis AX solutions internationally.

The built-in false alarm management combines versatile software detector technology and the optional AlarmCalm button to put an end to fire alarm frustration.

Using alarm verification and investigation delay technology, it allows additional time to respond, verify or investigate an alarm before the fire system goes into full alarm state.

Apartments

There are a number of causes that trigger false alarms and these differ depending on the building and its use.

For example, in apartment blocks false fire alarms can be caused by steam from showers, smoke from cooking, as well as call point misuse.

These triggers can lead to unnecessary evacuations making false alarms annoying for residents.

But if a fire panel features false alarm management, then a false alarm can be averted.

For instance, if someone creates cooking smoke in an apartment a verification sounder will activate.

If a fire alarm has a false alarm management button installed it then allows the occupant to press it to silence the sounder, extend the verification time and allow the smoke a chance to clear during verification.

If no other device activates and the smoke dissipates, the system will return to normal, avoiding unnecessary resident evacuation.

However, if the problem becomes more serious and smoke continues beyond the verification time the system will go into full alarm and evacuation procedures can begin.

Shopping Centres

Meanwhile, shopping centres and supermarkets are regularly forced to evacuate hundreds of shoppers due to false alarms.

Supermarkets are complex sites and may have offices, warehouses or storerooms, bakeries, staff rooms and toilets.

Each area presents its own unique fire risk which should be considered when designing a fire detection system.

Many areas can trigger false alarms in supermarkets, but one we come across regularly is the bakery.

When staff open an oven, heat and steam comes out. Unfortunately, if an optical or heat detector is installed, this triggers an alarm.

When the problem persists to avoid this, some supermarkets turn the fire system off or ignore LED alarms to avoid store evacuations, resulting in huge risk.

However, a fire panel that features false alarm management can solve this problem.

If smoke from an oven in a supermarket bakery activates a multi-sensor detector a verification countdown timer can be programmed to begin.

If the smoke clears and no heat is detected the system will return to normal avoiding an unnecessary shop evacuation.

Manufacturing

When it comes to manufacturing, downtime is the largest source of lost production reducing profits for companies as a result of lost business – false alarms are an unnecessary cause for production to stop.

In manufacturing plants where there are high temperatures, dust or chemicals in the air it is vital to consider where detectors are placed.

But it is also essential not to ignore detector signals.

As well as costing businesses money, repeated false alarms reduce people’s confidence in alarms making them complacent when it comes to evacuations.

Alarm fatigue can occur when a person becomes desensitised to an alarm due to repeated false alarms.

Here false alarm management can help since it is possible to set a verification time for when a device activation registers on a fire panel.

Then if no other detector is activated during the countdown, the system can automatically reset avoiding unnecessary evacuations and costly downtime.

Offices

Alternatively, in offices that are only occupied a few hours a day with multiple occupancy it is possible to opt for different false-alarm strategies.

This is easy to do since some false alarm management systems, like AlarmCalm, use their own unique ‘building areas’ for programming cause and effect, allowing the engineer to design individual false alarm management around specific risks on a site, rather than being restricted by the fire zones in place.

By dividing sites up into virtual false alarm ‘building areas’, independent of fire zones, users gain control of false alarm management and reduction strategies that exactly fit the needs of each part of a building.

Virtual building areas can cover multiple zones and points, partial zones or even single detectors.

This allows the programming of unique strategies targeting areas where there might be a risk of false alarms.

Businesses can now break free from the burden of recurrent false alarms, which not only harm their reputation but also carry financial implications.

By choosing an intelligent fire panel equipped with integrated false alarm management, such as Advanced’s AlarmCalm, we can keep calm and carry on safe in the knowledge the alarm has been verified.

For further information on Advanced’s AlarmCalm visit: https://www.advancedco.com/solution/alarm-calm/

This article was originally published in the April 2024 issue of International Fire & Safety Journal. To read your FREE digital copy, click here.