Introduction
If a fire alarm, sprinkler, suppression, or other fire protection system fails suddenly, for a short time a facility may be more vulnerable to a fire hazard. In these cases, an emergency fire watch plan is in place to ensure safety till normal protection is restored. Enabling a well-organised response minimises risk to the facility, occupant safety and assists in the simple coordination of a response with qualified fire safety professionals.
A sudden fire protection system failure can require immediate temporary measures to maintain awareness of conditions throughout the affected area. Arranging emergency fire watch Amarillo services can give facilities access to trained personnel who can patrol designated areas, identify developing hazards, communicate concerns to responsible staff, and initiate emergency procedures when necessary. This temporary coverage can help maintain a safer environment while qualified technicians work to restore the impaired fire protection system.
Determine the System Failure.
The first step is to understand what type of fire protection system has failed and the extent of its failure in a facility. Managers should determine if it is an alarm, sprinkler, fire pump, detection or any other key component that is the problem. The scope of the affected area needs to be clearly defined and monitoring needs to commence as soon as possible.
Notify Responsible Personnel
The system failure should be reported to appropriate safety personnel and colleagues immediately through the facility management system. If applicable, and in some cases, the local fire authority may also need to be contacted. Those who are employees, contractors or occupants must be adequately informed regarding the temporary safety measures in place, but not in a way that will cause confusion or alarm.
Immediately Set Up Fire Watch Coverage.
If the fire protection system fails, trained fire watch persons might be given fire watch duty on the affected areas. The range and frequency of patrols to be made should be in accordance with the relevant fire safety requirements and the emergency plan of the site. Guards are expected to be alert and to make necessary inspections and look for smoke, flames, sparks, overheating equipment or other hazards.
Additional fire risk control measures will be implemented.
Where there is a failure of the system, facilities should make reasonable efforts to minimise other potential sources of fire. The scope of this could be restricting hot work, managing combustible materials, ensuring emergency exits are kept clear and communicating about unsafe electrical or equipment conditions. Avoidable hazards can be reduced to help offset the loss of automatic protection.
Maintain Emergency Communication
The staff responsible for watching for fire should be provided with adequate communications and procedures for calling an emergency. Know how to reach supervisors/facility management, emergency responders, and other assigned contacts. Employees should adhere to emergency procedures in the event of smoke or fire, calling for action should the need arise, such as raising the alarm, contacting emergency services and assisting in the evacuation.
Complete the Fire Watch Activities form.
Records must be kept throughout the duration of fire watch. Patrol times, areas patrolled, conditions found, incidents, notifications and corrective actions are examples of data that may be recorded. Documentation enables management to monitor conditions and serves as documentation of actions taken during the system impairment.
Restore the Failed System
A fire watch should never be used as a substitute for the operation of the fire protection equipment; rather, it is a temporary measure. Qualified technicians should make a fast investigation and repair of the failed system. After repairs are made the system should be retested and returned to normal operation per applicable procedure.
Next review and update the protocol.
Facility managers need to review the emergency response following the incident. If there are communication issues, staffing problems, and if it’s something that’s happening over and over, it needs to be identified and worked on. I understand that the lesson learned approach can help to enhance emergency procedure planning for future system failures.
