Temporary Fire Alarms on Construction Sites: When Are They Needed and What Should You Specify?
A construction site needs a temporary fire detection and alarm system whenever the permanent building system is not yet installed, not yet commissioned, or not able to cover the areas currently occupied or worked in, which in practice means for most of a project's duration on anything beyond a small refurbishment. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person (usually the principal or main contractor) has to ensure the site has appropriate fire detection and warning arrangements at every stage, not just once the finished building's own system is live. What to specify depends on site size, layout, occupancy and the work taking place, but the starting reference points are BS 5839-1 for design and EN 54 for the equipment itself.
