Testing and Maintenance of Fire Safety Equipment and Systems

The maintenance of fire precautions is one of management's most important considerations in any premises.

There is a serious legal and moral obligation to maintain a satisfactory standard of all fire precautions provision, from the daily checking of the means of escape to the routine checking of extinguishers.

There is also a legal requirement imposed to provide and maintain accurate records on fire precautions. This can best be achieved by the use of a fire safety log book MS Word 539Kb

Maintenance of Fire Safety Measures

All fire safety systems and equipment should be subject to a suitable and adequate programme of maintenance. This maintenance programme should be carried out in accordance with the relevant British Standard or the equivalent, this will normally involve much of the work being carried out by a "competent person" ( a person with the appropriate knowledge and training to carry out the task).

However many of the routine items can be carried out by the user.
The main user tests are listed below.


Equipment	Period	Action
Fire detection and alarm systems including self contained smoke alarms and manually operated devices	Weekly	Check all systems for state of repair and operation Test operation of self contained smoke alarms and manually operated devices.
Automatic emergency lighting	Monthly	Carry out function test of all self contained luminaires
Portable lamps or torches	Daily or at the beginning of a working shift	Check availability and correct operation of equipment.
Fire fighting equipment including hose reels	Weekly	Check all extinguishers including any hose reels for correct installation and apparent function.

Details of companies in the field of maintenance of fire safety equipment and systems can be found by consulting the local telephone directory.