Axa Commercial is advising London businesses to review their fire risk assessments and staff training after London Fire Brigade announced it would no longer respond to daytime activations of automatic fire alarms in most non-residential buildings from October.

In the year to March 2024, LFB attended 52,000 false calls generated by automatic fire alarms. From October, automatic calls won’t be answered between 07:00 and 20:30 in a bid to reduce the burden on the force.

“London Fire Brigade’s decision is in line with many other fire and rescue services across the UK and it’s crucial that London businesses are aware of the change," said Dougie Barnett, Axa Commercial’s director of customer risk management. "If there's a fire, employees need to know to dial 999 during the working day because there won’t be an automatic response by the fire brigade like in the past.

“The change will impact all businesses that have a remote connection to an alarm-receiving centre. It means their fire risk assessments will need to be updated and staff will require additional training to make sure they respond in the appropriate way in case of fire.”


Managing the increased fire risk (Source: Axa)

There are several areas businesses should focus on to prepare for the change, according to the insurer:

• Updating fire risk assessments and staff training, with a particular emphasis on actions employees should take in the event of a fire alarm sounding during working hours. Where there is shift work, specific guidance should be provided for action required during response and non-response periods.

• Ensuring that staff understand the need to dial 999 in event of a fire to report the incident to the fire service. Individual employees should be given responsibility for the action required.

• Establishing an early identification system when the fire alarm is activated to determine if it is a false alarm or an actual fire that requires the premises to be evacuated and fire brigade called

• Delivering training to the relevant staff so they understand messages displayed on the fire alarm panel to assist with early identification of which detector has been activated within the premises.

• Ensuring that the fire alarm system has been regularly maintained by a competent contractor to prevent false alarms. Where the alarm signalling is connected to the BT RedCare system, early action should be taken to find an alternative alarm-receiving supplier before this service is withdrawn in August 2025.

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