Reducing False Fire Alarms in Schools

In amongst all of the other issues that the modern day teacher has to deal with is the huge disruption and distress caused by false fire alarms. In the main these unwanted fire alarms are maliciously activated by children who raise an alarm for any number of different reasons; boredom, getting out of their least favourite lesson right through to something far more sinister altogether.

Furthermore, as a fire alarm call point can be activated in the blink of an eye it is almost impossible to identify the culprit…which just makes raising a false alarm even more attractive to some pupils.

Over the ten years the SecuritySafetyProducts has been supplying call point covers, we have developed a number of different ways of preventing false fire alarms.

The first and most straightforward way is to use our standard call point covers. Requiring a person to lift the lid before depressing the break glass, this cover prevent fire alarms being activated by passers-by accidentally falling or brushing against them. The visual barrier is also enough to put many pupils off doing anything maliciously.

However, some pupils are not so easily deterred by a simple visual barrier, which is why we have developed both alarmed call point covers and semi-locking call point covers.

Firstly, the alarmed covers. These are supplied with a 9 volt battery already installed in them. This cover then emits an ear piercing 96 decibel alarm for all the time that the cover is lifted. The idea is this should immediately alert nearby teachers of a call point’s misuse in the corridor without the whole school being forced to be evacuated due to an actual alarm.

The alternative method is to buy a call point cover with a frangible lock. Unless the cover is pulled with significant force, the cover simply will not come up without being unlocked first. In essence this helps ensure that only those authorised to raise the alarm can. The only thing we must stress is the every teacher and authorised person is issued with a key and clearly advised on how this cover operates.