December 9, 1996
96-045
In response to the evidence presented at the 2 Forest Laneway (North York) Coroner’s Inquest last year, the jury recommended that fire alarm monitoring companies should identify each building in a multi-building complex separately.
Multi-building complexes often include buildings that vary significantly in height, area and use. A typical complex may consist of several office towers, a shopping mall, a recreation center and one or more residential towers which are all linked above grade and through a common underground parking garage. Such a complex requires a single fire alarm system.
Generally, this type of fire alarm system is fairly sophisticated and may incorporate several hundred initiating, signaling and supervisory zones. Annunciators located at the central alarm and control facility, and at other strategic locations, provide visual identification of a problem and are of vital assistance to building managers and firefighters during a fire emergency. The system is designed to notify the fire department of an alarm signal usually through an independent central station which is contracted by the building owner to monitor the fire alarm system. However, in some cases, monitoring may be provided by a proprietary control center located within the complex. (see Communiqué; #95-005 for additional information on the various monitoring options available).
Central stations provide fire alarm monitoring services in accordance with the relevant standard (NFPA-71, ULC listing) and per the client contract. For a multi-building complex, the entire complex may be monitored as a single entity or as individual buildings within the complex. If the complex is monitored as a single entity, firefighters responding to an alarm upon notification by the monitoring station do not have information as to which building may be involved in a fire. This information must be determined at the scene which may cause a significant delay in rescue and firefighting operations. However, if individual building monitoring is provided, firefighters receive information about the location of the fire in advance which may improve the response time significantly and eliminate confusion at the scene.
The Office of the Fire Marshal (OFM) is currently investigating ways to address the identification of buildings in fire alarm monitoring. In the interim, there is sufficient flexibility under Section 2.8 to require measures in the fire safety plan that will facilitate fire department access to the fire location in the complex. The Chief Fire Official may wish to consider several appropriate alternatives, subject to an assessment of the multi-building complex. These include:
Fire departments are advised to review existing fire safety plans of multi-building complexes in their community to determine if all of the building identification issues have been addressed satisfactorily. Attention should also be focused on pre-fire planning activities to ensure that responding firefighters are familiar with the fire alarm system and monitoring arrangements at specific multi-building complex sites.
For additional information or inquiries, please contact the OFM’s Research and Standard Section at (416) 325-3100.
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