Fire Detection systems

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (“the Fire Safety Order”) is the main legislation that controls fire safety in all premises in England that provide accommodation for paying guests.

The Fire Safety Order applies if anyone pays to stay in your premises or in a room within your premises, other than to live there permanently. The Fire Safety Order applies to all lets that are not let as a principal residence, even if you rent out a room in your premises only once.

The Fire Safety Order introduces a general duty of fire safety care to ensure that anyone staying in your premises is safe from fire. This includes taking steps to reduce the likelihood of fire starting and making sure that, in the event of a fire, people can evacuate to a place of safety.

If you are a person with responsibility for the premises, under fire safety legislation, you must:

• carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment of your premises and to record your findings
• ensure that adequate fire safety measures, such as escape routes and fire alarm systems, are provided; and that steps are taken to prevent fire from occurring
• maintain those fire safety measures in good condition and in effective working order
• have adequate fire procedures to ensure employees, guests and visitors are aware of what to do in the event of fire, and that they understand the fire safety measures within the premises
• give suitable instruction about fire procedures and fire safety measures to any staff you employ
• co-operate with any other person who has duties under fire safety legislation to co-ordinate the fire safety measures for which each of you is responsible
• keep your fire risk assessment and fire safety measures under regular review

The Fire Safety Order requires that you must review the fire risk assessment regularly and make sure that the fire safety measures in place are maintained in good working order. The requirements will vary from premises to premises and should be proportionate to their specific risks. An annual review is usually appropriate, but you must also conduct a review following any significant change to the premises, or an incident such as a fire.

What you need will depend on your business and premises, and whether you or other staff will be present when guests stay. The Fire Safety Order does not prescribe the specific fire safety measures required. What it does require is that you must identify and manage the overall risk and provide fire safety measures that are appropriate for the risk.

There is a range of fire safety measures possible in individual premises. As the person responsible for fire safety in your premises, you will need to use your judgement to decide what needs to be done to minimise risk.

You need to consider:

• the hazards you have found
• the risks to, and the needs of, everyone on the premises, particularly those staying there the character of the building; for example, what may be appropriate in a single room let as short-term accommodation in a home is unlikely to be the same as the requirements in a 300-year-old building with self-catering accommodation for 10 guests

Electrical equipment and wiring are common causes of fire. Therefore, you should take suitable measures to reduce the risk.

You must make sure that your electrical wiring has been checked by a qualified contractor. You must also look out for any signs of damage to cables, cracked or loose sockets. The electrical installation in your premises should be subject to inspection and test at least every five years. Any work on the electrical installation should be carried out only by a competent electrical contractor. For example, an electrical contractor certificated by the National Inspection Council for Electrical

Installation Contracting (NICEIC) or a member of the Electrical Contractors Association (ECA). The fuse board and circuit breakers should be in good condition and correctly labelled.

Electrical appliances should be subject to regular checks to ensure that appliances remain in safe working condition in accordance with manufacturers’ instructions. Check plugs to make sure that they are not damaged, are not overloaded and have properly rated fuses, and that cables are not frayed. Washing machines, tumble dryers and other white goods should be kept clean and in good working order. Any lint filters should be cleaned regularly. Appliances should be registered with the manufacturer and checked against current recall lists. You should carry out a visual check that all appliances appear to be in good condition between lets.

In bed and breakfast and similar accommodation, electrical appliances should be subject to periodic in-house service and testing (PAT) in accordance with the IET Code of Practice for

In-Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment.

The use of extension cables, trailing leads and adaptors should be avoided wherever practicable.

Carbon monoxide detectors should be provided where living accommodation contains a gas or solid fuel-burning appliance.

Smoke alarms should be installed in hallways, corridors, staircases, lounges, dining rooms and bedrooms. 

Heat alarms should be installed in every kitchen, and in any other rooms (such as laundry or utility rooms), in which false alarms might occur from smoke alarms, due to cooking fumes, steam, dust, etc.

If roof voids contain any combustible materials or sources of ignition, detection should also be present there. It is not normally necessary to install smoke or heat alarms in bathrooms or toilets. 

All smoke and heat alarms in the premises should be interlinked, so that, when any alarm device detects fire, all smoke and heat alarms give an audible alarm simultaneously. Interlinking may be by means of wiring or radio signalling. 

Preferably, all smoke and heat alarms should be mains powered with a tamper-proof standby power supply consisting of a battery. These are technically known as Grade D1 alarms. However, long-life, sealed battery alarms (known as Grade F1 alarms) may be acceptable as a short-term

measure. (say, around 2-3 years).

It is important that the fire protection measures provided in your premises are maintained in good condition and in effective working order. Regular testing and maintenance procedures should be put in place, some of which you may be able to carry out yourself, while others may need to be carried out by a competent contractor with sufficient training, experience or knowledge. 

A suitable record of testing and maintenance should be kept in the form of a log book or, alternatively, records can be held electronically. A simple maintenance and testing checklist can be used to make sure items and equipment are checked and tested in accordance with current best practice guidance.

It is important to note that smoke and heat alarms will need to be replaced periodically. The lifespan will depend on the model but, for smoke alarms, it is typically regarded as around 10 years.

Daily checks (for premises in which staff or the owners are present)

• Make sure that exit routes are not obstructed and are kept clear of storage

Weekly checks (for premises in which staff or owners are present)

• If the premises are fitted with a fire detection and alarm system (rather than domestic smoke alarms), the system should be tested, using a different manual alarm call point each week, to make sure that the system is operating
• Check that any fire-resisting doors fitted to stairways and escape routes close effectively under the action of the self-closing devices fitted 

Monthly checks

• Make sure all exit doors that are not in regular use can be easily opened
• Carry out a functional test of rechargeable torches and/or all emergency escape lighting units to make sure that they operate correctly
• Domestic smoke/heat alarms should be tested to check they work and are loud enough to wake anyone who is sleeping. Manufacturers also provide recommendations on other necessary maintenance, so check their guidance

Six-monthly checks

• Any fire detection and alarm systems should be serviced by a competent contractor
• Fire doors should be checked to make sure they remain in good condition, are not damaged, and remain a good fit in their frames

Annual checks

• Emergency escape lighting should be serviced by a competent contractor
• Any fire extinguishers should be serviced by a competent contractor

On each change of occupancy of premises in which staff or owners are not present (e.g. self-catering premises)

• The above weekly and monthly tests should be carried out

Normal light switches should be easy to find. You should think about whether, if a fire interrupts the electrical supply, any ‘borrowed lighting’ (e.g. from nearby street lighting) would be adequate to allow people to find their way out.

If not, you can replace or enhance existing light fittings with emergency escape lights, which have internal batteries that power the light in the event of a mains failure, at a reasonably low cost. These are recommended, particularly in hallways and staircases that may be difficult for guests to navigate in darkness should the mains power fail.

However, in the smallest premises, it may be acceptable to rely on rechargeable torches that illuminate automatically if the electrical supply fails. In that case, you should have one in each bedroom, with a sign that explains their function.

It is also possible to obtain “night lights” that remain plugged into sockets and provide lighting when the normal lighting is switched off or fails. (The sockets can still be used normally, by plugging electrical appliances into the night light.) If electrical sockets are located on escape routes, these can provide illumination of the escape route, but can also be removed from the socket for use as a torch.

You may need to consider external lighting to ensure outside areas and escape routes

are well lit.