What is the risk to the owner if the annual fire safety statement is wrong?

From July 1st 2020, you must use an Accredited Practitioner (Fire Safety); previously known as a CFSP. They must be accredited to endorse an Annual Fire Safety Statement for each type of essential fire safety measure on your premises (there are over 20 separate accreditation categories to maintain.) If they are an approved fire safety company, you reduce your risk regarding the accuracy and content of the statement. If your supplier is not accredited for all measures (assuming is not good enough), council will not accept the statement, you as the building owner take on the full risk of the annual statement incorrect issue and council may impose fines on the owners. This can have serious implications on your legal liability, insurance coverage, premiums, possible fire upgrade orders and the buildings' ability to remain occupied.

How often do my fire extinguishers have to be checked?

Australian Standard AS1851-2012, requires all extinguishers to be checked and tagged every six months. Depending on the type of extinguisher, they also need an overhaul every one to five years.

Do I need to issue an 'Annual Fire Safety Statement' to council?

Yes. Every building other than class 1 (house) is required to provide an annual statement to council. This is required under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021.

How much does an annual fire safety statement cost?

Every building will be different, so a fixed price is impossible without an inspection. You can be sure that every piece of fire equipment and every part of the building will need to be inspected and tested, so if the price seems too good to be true, it probably is opening the building owner and occupants to unnecessary risk.

So less headaches is guaranteed? What happens if I think you've caused more headaches than the last company completed an equivalent task?

We fix it free and credit $200 off your next invoice. Please note that the $200 credit relates to subsequent work, after the job at hand.

Ventia Road Tunnel 2020FIRE

Client:

Ventia

Project Type:

Commercial Operations

Building Type:

Road Tunnel

Location:

Sydney

Situation

2020 Fire was engaged to undertake the inspection and testing of all fire services in this major arterial road-tunnel in Sydney. At 11:23pm during scheduled night-closures and during regular testing to ensure the systems work, a 200mm deluge pipe in the tunnel broke, flooding the roadway, cross-passage and comms/valve room with 7000 litres per minute of water.

The comms/valve room contained sub-panels that controlled the fire detection and suppression for that part of the tunnel, 10 valves that controlled the deluge systems, lighting controls, signage controls, telephony and more. They were all flooded and almost all electrical controls damaged or destroyed.

Without these operating, the tunnel may not be operated – meaning hundreds of thousands of Sydney-siders may be delayed in getting to work the next day.

Actions Taken

Immediately when the pipe failure was known, we dispatched staff to shut off the main pumps, isolate the mains either side of the break and then re-commission the rest of the tunnel’s fire system.

Once the comms room power was made safe, 2020 Fire Protection entered the room and assessed the condition of the fire systems within.

The fire detection system panel was destroyed by water and therefore could not detect heat, nor activate the 10 x deluge systems in the case of a fire. This panel is a custom-made unit, not available off-the-shelf. This meant a 500m section of the tunnel in both directions did not have an automatic deluge system as required to operate the tunnel safely.

Our management came to site in the early hours of the morning and met with the tunnel management to brain-storm an outcome that would result in the tunnel being opened in the morning.

We established a local control centre for manual deluge operation with radios, radio back-up, air-quality monitoring, phone and computer in the sprinkler valve room in the tunnel. The tunnel operators forced-on the cameras in the area with no detection and monitored, plus stayed in contact with our staff in the tunnel. We shipped in spare parts from an alternative tunnel and started re-building the destroyed panel and monitored them to rectify the original pipe blow-out.

Outcomes

The tunnel was deemed safe to open in the morning by the road control centre and Sydney’s already horrific traffic was not affected.

The deluge pipe was fixed the following night, re-pressurised and re-tested.
The fire panel was re-built and brought back-on-line for automatic system operation by the end of that week, eliminating the need for on-site manual personnel.

The tunnel operators and Sydney-siders generally were spared huge inconvenience and associated costs by the quick thinking and solutions presented by 2020 Fire Protection.