QUICK GUIDE FOR PREVENTING FALSE FIRE ALARMS

by İpek Yavuz Konak
on 15 May 2018

Fire alarm systems are designed for detecting fire incidents early and activate fire automations in order to maintain safety of life and property in the building. However if fire alarm systems trigger false alarms, the credibility of the system decreases drastically. Consequently, people in the building will ignore fire alarms. People inside the building will be in great danger in case of a real fire.

False alarms in fire alarm systems are frequently encountered throughout the world. According to statistical data given by UK government website, fire and rescue services attended 563.527 incidents in 2017. Of all incidents attended by fire and rescue services in 2017, fires accounted for 30 per cent, false fire alarms 40 per cent and non-fire incidents for 30 per cent. The reasons of false fire alarms are divided into three groups:

– good intent but no fire

– false alarm coming from fire alarms systems

– malicious calls

67% of false fire alarms are caused by alarm signals triggered by fire alarm systems. This percentage is very high and it should be decreased by revisions of fire alarm systems.

Main reasons of false alarms coming from fire alarm systems are stated below:

– Misuse of the system

– Project design flaws

– Installation and cabling errors

– Lack of periodical maintenance

– good intent but no fire

– false alarm coming from fire alarms systems

– malicious calls

67% of false fire alarms are caused by alarm signals triggered by fire alarm systems. This percentage is very high and it should be decreased by revisions of fire alarm systems.

 

Correcting the flaws and errors in the system helps preventing false alarms. Also another solution for overcoming false alarms is integration of IP camera system and fire alarm system monitoring and control software. If fire alarm system software and IP camera system are integrated, authorized people can determine whether the fire alarm is false or correct.

When there is a fire alarm, nearest camera footage will open in the software, and authorized people can observe and evaluate the situation. For example; if a person pushes manual call point when there is no fire, the camera footage will be seen from software and authorized people will understand that this is a false alarm.

Supervisor graphical monitoring and control software, which is designed by Mavili Elektronik R&D team, can be integrated with IP camera systems. The communication is held by ONVIF protocole, so IP camera system should be ONVIF based. Since the integration is software based, there is no need for extra device.

For more information about Supervisor Software:

To conclude, false alarms are undesirable incidents which may cause serious damages. If a fire alarm system gives false alarms frequently, people in the building will ignore the alarms eventually. Even worse, fire alarm system can be deactivated due to false alarms. So the main reason of false alarms should be determined and corrected in order to provide safety of life and property in the building.

Source:

Fire and rescue incident statistics: England, year ending December 2017