I know that this is kind of a hot topic and that there have already been several discussions on this, but I just wanted to share some of my personal thoughts.
I know that many schools like to wait until there is an intercom announcement made before evacuating, but what happens when the intercom system fails in a fire? Generally, they are not installed up to fire alarm code.
I think a sort of “two-stage” type system would be the best. For example (still thinking about a school), when the alarm goes off, it could play a standby message telling people to wait for further instructions while the alarm is being investigated. It should also tell people to stay alert for signs of danger and to still evacuate if necessary. After a few minutes of nobody canceling the “second stage”, the alarm could play an evacuation message telling people to evacuate. There should also be a pull station or something in a place like the office to manually trigger the evacuation message. Lockdown alarms should also take priority over fire alarm messages.
I’m specifically talking about school buildings in the United States with voice evac systems. I’m kind of stealing the Canadians’ two-stage systems idea, but changing it. I feel like any other method of having delayed evacuation than using a voice evac system could prove to be dangerous in an emergency situation.
So, Positive Alarm Sequence with a standby/alert message at the start of the sequence then? Also, if new schools are being built with the intercom serving as the only means of voice alarming, that’s not to Code (IBC or NFPA 101)
Good idea actually: not sure I ever considered two-stage systems as possibly a good idea for schools!
Not to mention if for whatever reason there’s no one around to make such an announcement (which is why fire drills are meant to teach students to respond to just the alarm itself & thus to automatically evacuate if it should ever sound: of course as some of us know some school districts completely defeat this by doing unorthodox “drills”).
Now for the more complex answer to the other part of the post…
While I certainly do support allowing authorized staff to investigate and resolve a false alarm in any building, delayed evacuation is a bigger ask: there could be a compelling case for it in some cases but it should only be implemented after carefully assessing the building’s other fire protection features (e.g. compartmentation, sprinklers), and ensuring there’s proper procedures and staffing in place to investigate an alarm, and ensuring the proper voice message(s) are configured.
Schools are not the only type of occupancy to show interest in this.
Another variation of this could be a horizontal equivalent of a typical high-rise setup (in other words, compartmentation: dividing the building into several areas and only evacuating the area where the alarm originated.)
Of course, those examples all use a voice-evacuation system. Many older schools only have horn/strobes. If the PA system can meet requirements for coverage and backup power, a possible solution for these buildings could include replacing the horn/strobes with remote strobes and wiring the alarm audio into the PA system. Here’s a mention of a building that did this: Fire Alarms in Buildings (2.0) - #213 by weatherdan882002
Another option, in theory, could be non-voice notification used in conjunction with the PA system. This setup is common in Singapore (generally using bells), however, their code includes requirements for PA system coverage. (This video also shows the importance of not putting objects like trash cans below a shutter. If the shutter can’t close, the benefits of compartmentation provided by the shutter are lost.)
Yes I agree. My main concern is with schools (with or without voice systems) that have a policy to not evacuate until an intercom announcement is made, but the intercom system is not wired up to FA code and has no battery backup. Although voice evac systems offer paging, many people in charge of buildings (like the admin staff at my school) don’t know that.
The flip side is that while EVACS can do one-way paging without issue, they don’t do two-way intercom functionality (theoretically, one could implement this on top of FFT hardware, but it seems that nobody supports handsfree emergency phone/intercom call stations on FFT trunks?).
One would need to use the Atlas Sound dual voice coil speakers with one coil on the EVACS audio and the other connected to the intercom amp in order to implement this, and intercom audio is likely to be an issue when the alarm is going.
In this context “intercom” is likely vernacular for “PA system”.
Another issue is that some fire marshals (who shall remain nameless) get really mad at the idea of any building employee having the key to the FACP and/or knowing how to operate it.
There was even a case mentioned on this site a few years back where there was some misinformation (being spread by a fire alarm distributor!) which claimed that, in Rhode Island, it was a felony to put the key into the FACP cabinet without being a firefighter or “licensed technician”… even if the FACP was in a collector’s possession or sitting in its packaging.
I find it strange that a fire marshal would get mad that an employee knows how to use the fire alarm control panel, That’s a good thing considering how many false alarm events happen in public buildings everyday. It’s good to have an employee that knows how to silence it and does not have to wait for the fire department to come do it for them
I got to announce the all-clear message thru my school’s fire alarm system for the last drill I’ve ever been there for. After that ofc they went over the intercom cause, surprise surprise, they don’t have speaker/strobes outside, just inside.
