Most fire alarm faults can be left until your annual service is due, but there are five exceptions to this rule.
An Alarm That Won’t Reset
Continuous alarm sound – Same day repair required. It may be that the alarm has triggered due to a false alert, but this cannot be assumed. It is also possible that a slow developing fire has occurred. You must arrange for an engineer to attend the premises and rectify the problem as a matter of urgency.
A Dead or Unresponsive Panel
A faulty control panel is likely to render a whole fire alarm system inoperative. A completely blank or frozen panel does not indicate whether or not detectors are picking up fires. The premises must be treated as being without protection void until the panel has been repaired or replaced.
Fault or Tamper LEDs on Detectors
A lit fault or tamper LED on any fire detector indicates that the fire detector has ceased to function in a manner that allows it to reliably detect fires. The London Fire Alarm faults – when is an immediate repair required? by the London Fire Brigade details when a fire alarm fault needs to be repaired immediately.
A Zone That Has Gone Silent
Even though the system will often generate an alert when a zone goes offline, a silent zone can often go unnoticed until service is carried out. Therefore it is good practice to check the panel on a regular basis for any zones that have gone missing and are not generating any alerts. A silent gap in a fire alarm system is just as bad as a broken detector.
Power or Battery Warnings
Power or Battery Warnings – same day repair required! A mains failure warning or a low-battery alert for your Fire Alarms Northamptonshire means that the system has been left without backup protection and therefore must be repaired as a matter of urgency.
If any of the faults above occur please ring for a prompt call out from a qualified engineer rather than waiting for your next routine service inspection to be carried out.
