You live in a modern, high rise building with an excellent fire response system that has proven over the years to be highly dependable and quick to respond. Your fire safety system has many different levels of protection and considerable system redundancy built into it. In case one component should fail, another would also be available to detect a fire before it got out of control. In addition, considerable thought was given to evacuation of the building by using modern smoke control methods, pressurizing the hallways and stairwells. It is hoped that you will be reassured, rather than “alarmed” and read further. We want you to inform yourself of what our fire safety program includes.
ANNUAL FIRE ALARM TESTING
The annual testing of the fire alarm panel is scheduled to be done in May, from Monday, May 17th through Wednesday, May 19th. This test typically takes three days, and requires that the various devices, including smoke detectors, sprinkler systems, positive pressurizing fans for hallways and stairwells (to keep smoke from entering evacuation routes), exit lighting, strobe lights, sirens, elevator out of service response, pull stations and of course, the alarm panel itself, are tested and re-certified each year. A separate test each year is done of each of the fire extinguishers, and these too are re-certified annually. In a high rise building, a working fire safety system is literally a matter of life and death.
Since each apartment has a smoke detector and public address system speaker, entry to each apartment to check these devices is a requirement for complete annual testing. If you have a key to your apartment in the association office, we will use that key for entry to test the smoke detector if you are not home when the inspector reaches your apartment. A security guard or other building staff member will be accompanying the inspector, and ensure that the apartment is locked afterward. There will be two people inside the apartment at all times.
It is not possible for the inspector to visit apartments on an appointment basis, due to time constraints and the terms of our inspection contract.
Emergency Key Access to Units
The association keeps keys to the units in a locked box with the keys coded to prevent misuse. The General Manager and Building Engineer have access to the key codes. The condominium documents, as well as the Florida condominium law, require that owners provide the association keys to each unit, so that emergency entry is available to the association without delay. Broken water pipes, flooding, unexplained smoke, fires, injuries, etc. are typical types of emergencies where quick and unimpeded access is necessary to preserve life and/or property. If the association does not have a key and must enter the apartment in an emergency, it does have the right to force entry (break the door), which is obviously a desperate measure and last resort; the association does not want to be put in the position of having to do this. (The expenses for repair would be the responsibility of the apartment owner.)
Residents Change and So Do Keys…
Units are sold, tenants move in and out, and residents change locks from time to time, forgetting to give a copy of their new key to the association. Consequently, our keys are sometimes out of date and do not work. We would have no way of knowing whether the keys on hand now no longer work, until an emergency arises (or a lockout) and we discover that we do not have access. Once a year, when the annual fire alarm testing is done, we have the opportunity to check keys to the apartments.
If you are not sure whether the association has the key to your apartment, you may bring it downstairs during office hours and have it compared against the key kept in the locked key box. We can send someone upstairs to test it in your doorlock if you wish, in your presence.
False Alarms and Other Annoyances
Fire alarm systems are exquisitely delicate mechanisms, designed to trigger an alarm at the earliest sign of trouble. The rationale behind the system is to trigger the alarm early, to provide the greatest amount of time to respond to a real emergency. Of course, in order to do this, the system will inevitably test false “positives” and trigger the alarm siren, resulting in occasional false alarms.
Smoke will set off a smoke detector, but so will an errant electrical signal, transistor malfunction, dust, tobacco smoke, spray paint or even aerosols. If a vehicle is too high for the garage and hits a sprinkler head, it will set off the sprinkler and trigger the alarm system. Throwing cement or plaster powder down the trash chute can trigger the smoke detector in the trash chute, setting off the alarm system. Thankfully, the alarm system is almost always signaling an event that turns out to be a false alarm. But it is there for a reason, and someday the event could be real.
WHEN THE FIRE ALARM RINGS…..
When the fire alarm panel rings, our front desk staff is instructed to read the panel read-out and determine the location of the trouble. We then dispatch the rover by radio to check the location for signs of smoke or fire. If a smoke detector is malfunctioning, we can reset it or temporarily remove the head from the system until a new one can be installed in its place by the alarm service company. We can then clear the alarm panel and proceed to the normal routine.
As a safety precaution, when the alarm rings, it also rings off site in a remote monitoring station, which calls the front desk to confirm that we are aware that the alarm has gone off, and to see if it is indeed a real emergency. If the monitoring station cannot reach the front desk because the telephone lines are busy, they will automatically call the fire department to respond. Clearly, the fire department will not appreciate responding to frequent false alarms.
If we determine that there is indeed a fire that cannot be immediately extinguished, we will call the fire department without hesitation. We will then go on the public address system (speakers are in each apartment) and announce that we are requesting that the building be evacuated as a precaution.
Special Assistance List for Evacuation
If you are a resident of the building and are not physically able to descend the flights of स्तैर्स to the ground level without assistance, let the association office know in writing, so that we may have a list of residents that can be given to the fire department upon their arrival, advising them of the need for special assistance. Ask to be put on the “Fire Department Special Assistance List.” If you are placed on this list, do not attempt to evacuate the building, as unnecessary time will then be lost in trying to locate you in your apartment.
Evacuating Your Apartment
If it is necessary to evacuate the building, we ask that you leave the windows and doors in your apartment shut (to prevent oxygen from feeding the fire), exiting your apartment as a group with any other occupants of your unit, and proceed to the nearest stairwell, and begin to descend down the stairs If your apartment door handle feels hot from the inside, do not open it, as the flames would have to be in the immediate vicinity in your hallway, and opening the door and adding oxygen to the fire would possibly create a “flashover” situation. If your interior apartment door handle is hot and you cannot leave the apartment, put a wet towel at the bottom of your door, and call “911” to advise them of your situation.
If you should find yourself in an area with smoke, you will find a layer of oxygen below the smoke level, closer to the floor. Get down, get your orientation and get out.
Evacuating the Building
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GO UP TO THE ROOF, AND DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE THE ELEVATORS. The roof door is locked, and the elevators are out of service during a fire, to avoid the possibility of people being trapped.
DO descend the stairs to the ground level, and do meet with your relatives on the beach area east of the building. Do not try to assemble on the west (front part) of the building or in the lobby, as the fire department will be trying to deploy their equipment and you will be in the way. When the “all clear” approval has been given by the Fire Department, our staff will advise everyone that it is safe to re-enter the building.
BETTER FIRE ALARM RESPONSE COMMUNICATIONS
Then the alarm sounds in the middle of the night, the front desk is often flooded with phone calls asking what the status of the alarm is. This makes it very difficult for them to receive any true emergency calls, or receive the call from the remote monitoring station confirming that there is no emergency.
When the front desk does receive an alarm, the Concierge stays at the front desk while the Rover checks to see if it is a false alarm. This can take a couple of minutes.
Rather than call the front desk, we will begin putting a sign in front of the in-house front desk TV camera, which will advise you of the current status of the alarm. You need only to turn your television set to Channel 39, to see a status report. The advisories you will see will say any of the following:
(1) Alarm received, Investigating.
(2) False Alarm.
(3) Fire Department Responding. Evacuation Not Necessary at this Time. Stay Tuned to this Channel.
(4) Alarm Genuine. Fire Department Coming. Please Evacuate to Beach Area. Do not climb stairs. Roof door closed.
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