The HMO Debate – an admission of defeat.

Painting over sprinkler heads is clearly a “no no” and should have been picked up when the work was checked, likewise using cigarette lighters to set off sprinklers is really no different to leaving a top on with the plug in.

In both cases, they are issues because sprinklers are not normal, all the same type issues happened when smoke alarms were new. This is going to change soon, as all new homes in Wales will have sprinklers fixed.

(I am not starting to think that sprinkler heads should be chrome not white, so it is very clear if they had been painted over.)

Ian I think that sprinklers will "arrive" one day soon and I agree that all the problems are no different to any other issues with fire safety equipment. I think that sprinkler heads should be coated in a material that throws off paint - Teflon?
Interesting that Wales are ahead of the game on this and of course the cost of fitting during construction is so much less.

Sprinklers would not work in my case, I have a 20 room fully furnished, DSS, HMO, the fire alarm goes off every week because some one burns the toast in their room !! and is recorded as false alarm.

Serious water damage would be the end result, on a weekly basis !

It takes a lot more then burning the toast to set off a Sprinkler. There needs to be a lot of heat build-up to set a Sprinkler off. Hence the need to also have smoke alarms to catch small fires before they become large enough for a Sprinkler.

Any alarm system that has a false alarm more than 1 or 2 times a year, needs fixing, if need be you must stop people making toast in their rooms. A system with false alarms will be ignored when there is a real fire.

As an ex- fireman you should be aware that you can get the fire brigade to attend your properties under the Community Fire Safety initiative.
The crew will carry out fire safey checks and give advice and in your case they would fit smoke detectors which do not go off with toast. the make is FireAngel SI-610 or similar.
10 year life tamper proof battery.
They will determine where detectors need to go and generally speaking will replace any existing SD with a new one as it usual that existing SD's are 1 year batteries.
They have to meet targets so the more visits you can arrange the better for them as it keeps management off their backs.
They struggle sometimes to meet those targets as it is not easy to arrange visits as not many citizens seem to know this initiative exists.
I got my tenant to have a CFS visit from the loacal fire stn and they installed 2 SD's.
This CFS situation is bit like the police CPO attending your property and giving you as a householder crime prevention advice.
The budgets are there for SD provision for free as the intent was and is to reduce fire deaths.
You the taxpayer is paying for it; you might aswell get your money's worth and I found with my experience that relevant fire safety advice was something that was appreciated by all CFS recipients as sometmes there isn't an appreciation of how simple things can prevent loss of life, though of course nobody thinks anything is going to happen to them!
I can't tell you how many house fires I attended caused by brand new fridge/freezers and washing machines!
So it is not always things that you might do to cause a fire it is what things in the property might do!?
As it is ALL free what has an householder got to lose.
Plus there are people out there who would like the idea of a load of fireman turning up at their property to help them even if it is not the normal urgent attendance they would usually arrive by!!?
If as a landlord you have any concerns regarding fire safety for your properties you may always request the attendance of a Fire Safety Officer and they will assist you.
Obviously if they ascertain that there are problems, you won't be prosecuted but you will be expected to resolve the issues.
Only if you refuse will you be prosecuted; which is fair.
The whole ethos of the fire service is to encourage compliance with fire regulations not with overbearing prosecution but to assist and manage things for the benefit ultimately of ALL parties.

To add I appreciate that with an HMO there are specified fire alarm requirements but it is still possible to change the SD heads for different ones not so sensitive to toast.
You could even have replacement heat detectors I think which obviously don't react to toasters unless they end up catching fire which I've known!!!

Paul

Thank you so much for sharing this information. I've been a landlord for 22 years and I'm the founder of this site and I wasn't aware of this.

Would you like to submit a full article so I can give this the attention it deserves please?

Please drop me an email - mark@property118.com

Regards

Mark

Just to advise fire alarm actuations caused by toast burning are NOT false alarms.
A false alarm is when someone maliciously calls the fire brigade or actuates break glass call points maliciously etc.
Alarms caused by smoke detectors if the cause was smoke are denoted as being caused by apparatus.
If when the fire brigade turns up and there is a fire in progress a further running call will be made by the OIC to a fire at the premises.
You will then potentially have a further brigade attendance to what is now a fire and not just a fire alarm actuating.
The actuation of a fire alarm is not false it is the system doing its's job.
The fact that the actuation was on this ocasion caused by burnt toast is irrelevant.
It was a genuine alarm, caused by toast burning.
If someone calls out the fire brigade in their full belief that they believed at the time they made the call that they suspected a fire or smell of burning or some other emergency incident and it turns out subsequently that there was no incident it is NOT a malicious call out and it IS NOT a false alarm.
They are denoted as good intent calls and ALL citizens should not hesitate to call the fire brigade no matter what other people might say if they have a belief unfounded or not that there may be an emergency.
The fire service always works on the basis ; if in doubt call us out.
The service would far rather attend incidents where people have a geinuine concern that there may be an incident which turns out not to be the case than leave it so that something might develop that wouldn't have done if the fire brigade were called at the time.
Obviously it is helpful to the OIC if the caller can make themselves know to the OIC to further investigate and resolve the reason for the call out.
NOBODY should be worried about calling the fire brigade out if you have any doubt about any possible emergency situation no matter how trivial it might seem at the time.
I in my career went to a few incidents where people said we didn't call you out as we didn't think it was much.
Turns out it was the start of a major fire!!

One big problem on the fire proving problem is people wedging fire doors open.
A solution, admittedly not cheap but that in my experience worked every time is magnetic fire doors which disengage when the fire aarm actuates.
Consequently you can nearly guarantee that ALL fire doors are in place and remember they do an excellent job in holding back smoke thereby allowing people to egress the property a lot easier.;

Remember sprinklers don't drench they spray and are highly effective in reducing fire, smoke and water damage.
When the fire brigade turn up in about 5 mins from the call being made the sprinkler will be shut down if deemed appropriate.
Sprinklers are a highly efficient way of dealing with a fire at it's commencement stage.
What Wales is doing for new build is the way to go.
After all how many fire deaths occur in office and industrial buildings which have sprinklers compared to the amount of fire deaths that occur in residential property who don't have sprinklers