Fire alarm monitoring is when a fire alarm system is monitored by a third party monitoring provider, usually 24/7 and for 365 days of the year. An Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) will be monitoring your fire alarm system for a number of things, with the most important being alarm triggers and providing the appropriate automatic response. This dedicated, round-the-clock service is critical for businesses, as it removes the reliance on a staff member or passerby to detect an incident and contact the emergency services, especially outside of regular business hours. For sectors like offices and restaurants, where premises may be vacant late at night, a monitored system ensures a fire is detected and responded to immediately, significantly mitigating potential damage.
Rapid Response: The Key to Minimising Disaster
When you have a monitored system in place, an immediate response can be actioned when an alarm is triggered, providing a rapid response from the fire services, authorities and or notification to the keyholder that there is a fire on site. The speed of this intervention is paramount. Fires can spread rapidly, and the difference between a minor incident and a catastrophic loss often comes down to minutes. The swift action initiated by a certified Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) is therefore essential for both life safety and the preservation of assets.
In fact, the latest statistics published by the UK Government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities highlight the ongoing threat of non-domestic fires, with thousands of incidents recorded annually across England. These figures underscore the continued necessity for robust fire safety measures. For businesses, a catastrophic fire can result in years of operational downtime, with some never recovering. This is why a proactive monitoring solution is not just a security measure, but a crucial element of a strong business continuity plan.
Furthermore, remote monitoring is not limited to fire alarms; it can be integrated with your overall security monitoring setup for a comprehensive site overview, as explored further in our guide on combining fire, security, and environmental systems.
False Alarms: The Costly Disruption
Other areas of your fire alarm system that can be monitored and identified, are false alarms. These activations are a major burden on the Fire and Rescue Service and can cause significant disruption and cost to a business. Once the monitoring team have confirmed it is a false alarm—often using advanced video verification or sequential monitoring protocols—they can inform you or switch off the alarm remotely, therefore saving you and your business time, cost and reducing system downtime. This verification process is a key benefit, reducing the number of unnecessary call-outs that distract emergency services from genuine incidents, which is an increasing concern for UK Fire and Rescue Services. For businesses like those in care homes or student accommodation, managing false alarms discreetly and efficiently maintains a high quality of service for occupants while ensuring compliance with local fire authority protocols. You can gain a deeper understanding of this by reading our article on how AI is reducing false alarms and operator fatigue in ARCs.
System Faults: Maintaining Operational Integrity
Finally, system faults can also be identified when you have fire alarm monitoring in place. By constantly monitoring your system’s performance, the monitoring provider can therefore see if any issues could be compromising the security of your system. This proactive detection includes issues like low battery power, communication path failures, or component malfunctions. At RMS, we will always fix these issues remotely whenever possible. This preventative approach dramatically improves the long-term reliability and integrity of your fire safety infrastructure, ensuring it is always ready to respond effectively. Continuous system health checks are especially vital for complex multi-site operations or manufacturing and waste recycling facilities where environmental factors can degrade equipment over time. For more information on maintaining reliability, consider our insights on how backup protocols are key for remote monitoring.
Fire alarm monitoring, therefore, acts as an extra layer of safety and security as an alarm trigger, fault or false alarm will never be missed. This commitment to uninterrupted service is why compliance with rigorous standards is non-negotiable.
Who Monitors the Alarms? The Importance of Certification
At RMS, we have a Monitoring Centre team in place, with highly trained operatives, who will provide the constant monitoring of your fire alarm system. Our Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) is built and operates to the highest industry standards, including the comprehensive BS EN 50518 standard, which specifies the requirements for the location, construction, and operation of ARCs to ensure the highest levels of security and operational resilience.
We handpick our monitoring operatives to ensure we are continuously providing the highest level of professional service. In addition to their wealth of experience, each operative is SIA licensed and BS7858:2012 vetted. Their training goes beyond simple procedure, focusing on the judgement and critical thinking needed to handle complex scenarios. This level of professionalism ensures that all signals, including those from our intruder monitoring service, are managed with the utmost accuracy and speed, a requirement increasingly essential as alarm technology evolves, as highlighted by a report on enhancing ARC efficiency through advanced training and technology in the security industry.
What Happens When Alarms Are Triggered? The Response Protocol
Want to know how fire alarm monitoring works? Find out in the below steps what happens when alarms are triggered. The specific protocol is designed to eliminate ambiguity and ensure the fastest possible response, while also adhering to the established rules set by fire authorities for response verification.
- Your fire alarm system is triggered and we receive a signal at our Alarm Receiving Centre.
- If the signal is received during your site’s normal working hours, one of our monitoring team will be in touch with the site to confirm whether the activated trigger is a false alarm or not. If it is a false alarm, we’ll stop the alarm. If there is a fire, we’ll action an immediate fire brigade response.
- If the signal is received outside of your site’s working hours, we assume it is not a false alarm and will automatically initiate a fire brigade response. This is a critical service, providing essential protection when a site is completely unoccupied, offering peace of mind to keyholders and business owners.
This systematic approach, combined with modern alarm signalling methods like those detailed in our complete guide to fire alarm monitoring, makes the service indispensable. Beyond fire, RMS also provides essential non-security monitoring services, such as fridge and freezer monitoring, ensuring that every aspect of your business continuity is protected. Effective monitoring helps you meet the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which places a legal duty on the responsible person to ensure the safety of employees and visitors.
Fire alarm monitoring is therefore a service that can significantly increase the safety of your site and employees. If you are looking to set up a new monitoring contract or wish to move an existing contract over to us, get in touch online or call us on 0330 002 1149.
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