From 1 October 2024, the London Fire Brigade has said it will no longer respond to automatic fire alarms at most commercial properties between 7am and 8.30pm. Businesses should review their fire risk assessments in light of this change.

London Fire Brigade’s move is in line with a trend across the 52 Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) in the UK, where all but 14 have put protocols in place to limit responses to unwanted fire alarm signals. These protocols mean FRS will only attend automatic fire alarms once a fire has been confirmed, which could delay fire brigade attendance and increase the potential of significant fire damage.

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service adopted the same protocol in July 2023 and has since seen an average daily reduction in unwanted fire alarm signal callouts of 52.

It is recommended to review the following:

• Update Fire Risk Assessments: To reflect the new delayed response times and include enhanced fire detection and management systems.
• Revise Fire Safety Plans: Amend fire plans so that confirmed fires during business hours are reported by dialling 999.
• Upgrade Fire Detection Systems: Upgrade existing Automatic Fire Detection (AFD) systems to include double knock, multi-sensing detectors, or other confirmed technology that requires multiple triggers, providing a confirmed activation.
• Keyholder Protocols: Develop a keyholder confirmation process to verify AFD activations outside business hours. A swift 10-20 minute response is required for early verification and attendance by the FRS.
• Staff Training: Train staff on investigation procedures following an AFD activation so they are prepared to deal with such incidents safely and effectively.
• Update ARC Protocols: Change Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) protocols so that FRS are not automatically notified upon alarm activation. Instead, wait for secondary confirmation through additional detector activations, monitoring the “confirmed” technology, or keyholder verification.