The clocks went back at the weekend. It’s dark by teatime, the heating’s on, and it won’t be long before we’re scraping windscreens on the way into work.
Most businesses don’t give their fire alarm or CCTV a second thought when the weather turns. Winter is when we get the most calls, though. Damp gets into detectors, batteries struggle, cameras pick up nothing after dark and buildings sit empty for days over Christmas. A lot of those January callouts could have been sorted with a quick check in the autumn, so here’s what we’d look at now.
Why fire alarms go off for no reason in winter
A building that sits cold overnight and then warms up quickly in the morning is a recipe for condensation. That moisture can form inside detector heads, and an optical smoke detector can’t always tell the difference between a bit of mist and actual smoke. Loading bays, warehouses, plant rooms and anywhere with a shutter door are the usual places it happens.
Heating that hasn’t been used since spring doesn’t help either. The first time it fires up it sends dust round the building, and some of that settles in the detectors.
The odd false alarm feels more like an irritation than a risk. The trouble starts when it keeps happening. Staff stop taking it seriously, you lose time evacuating for nothing, and many fire and rescue services now want a fire confirmed before they’ll attend an automatic alarm at some premises.
If your fire alarm system has started playing up since the weather changed, get it looked at. It might only need a clean, or a detector might be the wrong type for that area. In cold, dusty spaces an aspiration system often works far better than standard point detectors.
Standby batteries and winter power cuts
When a storm knocks the power out, your fire alarm panel, intruder alarm and emergency lighting all switch over to their backup batteries. Those batteries don’t last forever. They lose capacity every year, and they perform worse in the cold.
So a battery that only just passed its test back in April might not hold out through a long outage in January. Ask whoever maintains your system when the batteries were last load tested and when they were last changed. If the power went off at six on a Friday and nobody was in until Monday, would the system still be running? If you’re not sure, find out now rather than after the event.
Heaters and extension leads
Every winter the portable heaters come out. One under a desk, another in reception, often plugged into an extension lead that’s already running a kettle and a printer. They get pushed up against boxes and bins, and they get left on overnight more often than anyone would admit.
Christmas adds to it. Extra stock ends up in corridors and by fire exits, and a shop or warehouse can look very different in December to how it looked in the summer.
Keep heaters well away from anything that burns, plug them straight into the wall and switch them off at the socket when you leave. Keep escape routes clear, even when space is tight. And if the way you use the building changes over winter, your fire risk assessment should change with it.
Extinguishers, smoke vents and emergency lighting
Water and foam fire extinguishers kept in yards, garages, outbuildings or cold stairwells can freeze. If that happens the extinguisher can be damaged and may not discharge. Frost protected versions are available for those spots, so have a quick look at any that sit outside the heated part of the building.
AOV systems take a battering too. Rain, wind and ice all wear on the actuators and seals, and a vent that won’t open can’t let smoke out of a stairwell. Get it tested if it hasn’t been done recently.
Emergency lighting matters more at this time of year than any other. If the power goes at half four in June, nobody notices. In December your staff could be feeling their way down a dark staircase. Emergency lighting needs a monthly function test and an annual full duration test, and winter is when any gaps show up.
Dark nights and building security
From now until February it’ll be dark before most people leave work. That gives anyone looking to break in more hours to do it, and industrial estates go very quiet once everyone’s gone home.
Have a look at what your CCTV actually records at night. Footage that’s perfectly clear in daylight can be grainy or blank in the dark if the infrared has failed. Spiders are a real nuisance in autumn as well. They’re drawn to the warmth and light around camera housings, and one web over the lens can spoil the picture or set off motion alerts all night.
Test your intruder alarm and check the monitoring is live. Go through your keyholder list too. If someone’s left since it was last updated, the 2am call might go to a phone nobody answers.
Automatic gates and barriers don’t like the cold much either. Ice on the tracks or sensors can stop a gate closing at night, or leave it stuck shut when the first delivery turns up. If you use access control, make sure the active fobs and cards match the people who still work for you.
Before you close for Christmas
Lots of businesses shut for a week or more over Christmas, so the building is empty at the coldest point of the year. Before you lock up, check the alarms are being monitored, the keyholders know they’re on call and someone knows what to do if the alarm goes off on Boxing Day.
Try to get any servicing booked in November. December fills up quickly, and a planned visit costs a lot less than an emergency callout in the new year.
Book a winter check with 24/7 Protection
We look after fire safety systems and electronic security for businesses, schools and care homes across Darwen, Blackburn, Burnley and the rest of Lancashire. It doesn’t matter if another company fitted your system. We can come out, do a free health check and tell you what needs attention before the weather gets any worse.
Have a look at our maintenance and monitoring packages, or give us a call on 01254 416247. You can also email enquiries@247protection.co.uk
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