The PROPERTY DOCTORS, Sydney Australia Novak Properties
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The PROPERTY DOCTORS, Sydney Australia Novak Properties
EP. 1432 - IS YOUR FIRE ALARM CONNECTED? KEEPING UP WITH COMPLIANCE
Have you ever assumed your building's fire alarm automatically calls emergency services? You might be dangerously wrong.
What started as a routine cleaning of a dusty server cabinet quickly escalated into a full building evacuation and a shocking discovery about fire safety systems. After accidentally triggering our building's alarm with dust, our 52-unit apartment block found itself standing outside for nearly 30 minutes, waiting for firefighters who were never actually notified. The sophisticated fire panel in our foyer, which could pinpoint exactly where the alarm was triggered, wasn't connected to emergency services at all.
This eye-opening experience revealed a critical gap in knowledge that many property owners and residents share. Fire safety compliance is among the top three concerns for property buyers, alongside balcony issues and concrete cancer. The financial implications are substantial – fire detection systems, sprinklers, fire doors, hydrant systems, and emergency lighting can cost between $50,000-$100,000. But these investments become priceless during an actual emergency.
The most important lesson? Never assume your building's alarm will automatically contact emergency services. Always call triple zero directly, regardless of how advanced your building's systems appear. And if you're a building manager or resident, take the time to understand your building's fire safety systems, emergency procedures, and muster points. This knowledge doesn't just provide peace of mind – it could save lives when minutes matter most. Take a moment today to verify your building's emergency protocols, and remember to appreciate the dedicated emergency services personnel who respond to our worst moments with professionalism and care.
All right, that's a little bit embarrassing. Yesterday, mark Novak and the DYFI department have we got some lessons to teach you today? Stay tuned, guys. I'm the ringleader, so what you know. I find this a little bit to talk about, a little bit difficult to talk about. Guys and girls. Billy, I'm sorry, Everyone, I'm sorry. Yesterday I decided to blow out the server cabinet in our office and 52 units had to evacuate our unit block and I apologise to everyone three times each and I'm really sorry, but I'm also a bit worried about what I learnt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's um, but I'm also a bit worried about what I learnt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a late night, late night in the office. It was a late one.
Speaker 2:It was a late one so Billy, what do you know about fire safety? Well, fire safety, welcome we, can we. Fire safety is massive. It's probably, when I'm talking to buyers, it's probably, you know, one of three big fears they have the. The number one fear is balconies, balcony upgrades in concrete cancer. Number two comes up as as fire upgrades because they are expensive, but that's so important. So let's, let's step people through 60 seconds. What happened last night?
Speaker 1:so I'm saying you, I, I decide to the server cabinet. For five years, six years, seven years has been never had a good clean. So I decided to blow it out, vacuum it out, and there's dust everywhere, everywhere. Dust, dust, dust and the fire alarm goes off. And when our with anyone who doesn't know we're in a building of 52 units, it's a six, seven story building. Everyone's evacuated on the street. So I'm like you're an idiot, mark. And the second thing'm thinking while it's all the sirens going off, this thing's loud. The second thing I'm thinking is how do I do that with dust? So first of all, if you're in like an office block or a big building, you know they're not only sensitive towards fire, they are sensitive towards dust, these things. So I dusted up the server room. The alarm went off, I'm outside and we're waiting for the fire department yeah, but the the shocking thing here is what?
Speaker 2:what happened when the fire department turned up?
Speaker 1:so I'm so, I'm so. So I'm apologizing to everyone in the building going. Look, I'm really sorry, you know that was me. I was dusting the server cabin. I'm really sorry, that was me. And there's this control box. I'm standing at the control box and it's warning us of all these blights are going off and, um, I've had this happen before in the building because we've been in the building for seven years.
Speaker 1:So there's a couple of rules. So you'd never reset the alarm without or isolate the alarm if you, if you haven't, actually, if the fire department actually hasn't been out and checked the area, the zone that's in danger. So you know, you just don't turn the alarm off unless you're thousand percent that it's actually not a fire. Number one, yeah. So we're going. I know it's not a fire because it says, it says the zone, it says real estate on the panel and I know it's us that set it off. Could have been someone else. So check, check, check. So and I know it was the dust and I know exactly when I triggered the event.
Speaker 1:But we're waiting outside and everyone's waiting outside, you know, because it's really really noisy and this guy will this guy like we're there for like 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 25 minutes, and the fire department, god bless, and they do a beautiful job, good guys. Word out to the fire is, by the way, um, the fire department, nothing. So we ring, we're in there only about 100 meters up, 200 meters up the road. So we ring them. And then, while while we're ringing them, um, I'm trying to get into the fire panel and it's locked. And so we ring them and they answer Lovely guys.
Speaker 1:And they're like is there a key on top of the fire panel? And we're like, oh, look on top of the fire panel. No, he's like well, just, are you guys coming? He's like nope, we're like what, what, what, what, what do you mean? He goes, we got, but didn't you get like an alarm code trigger like, if they go, yeah, could have gone to another fire station and they could be on the way. You know, if we're, if we're busier at the time, um, they'll, they'll send it to another fire station. We're like, wow, okay, um, it's been 30 minutes and we're a pretty big building and they've come out, like in seven years, probably about three or four times super quick, yeah and he goes and he goes mate, just turn it off.
Speaker 1:Like yeah, but how do we turn off? He goes get the building manager. I get up and morris is the building manager, like I'm with the building manager, morris, have you got a key to the fire control box? And he's trying different keys, trying different keys, lovely guy. Nah, so I sort of I work my way into the firebox. I won't say what I did, but I open the firebox, silence the screecher and Everyone in the building's like oh, cool, okay, all done.
Speaker 1:And then Morris and I are still standing there and we're reading the panel and it says oh, you know, your fans are on in your building so you have to reset your fans in your building because there's all these extraction fans that turn on. A lot of stuff happens. So we talked to the fire guy. I've still got him on the phone. He goes look, we'll just come down. You know we'll come now. So they come down to the um to say so they walk in, lovely guys. And he's like, and I'm like dude, how do you turn these fans off? You know, I'm chat gpting it. And he's like, presses his button for like one second and it's all reset perfectly the panel.
Speaker 1:And I was like mate, thank you so much, you know, uh, you know, do I have to pay you anything? There was no, fine, thank god. Um, but what struck me? What struck me? And then we said to the like aren't you guys connected? They said, no, well, like, is that the law? It's like, yep, some panels are, in a certain period, are connected to us, some panels are not connected to us.
Speaker 1:It could have gone out to your fire guys. You know your, your third party fire guys. I think they're pro fire, or whatever the name. Different name, different names. There were celtic fire, I'm not sure. Anyway, that's the story. So the moral of the story and I want everyone to know this is you just, if you, if there is a fire, you just don't rely on your panel in your building or your alarm going off in your building and don't assume that it's gone to the fire department. Ring, ring, ring in the event of danger on the phone. I know it's obvious, but I could imagine someone burning out their kitchen and all of us standing downstairs saying, yeah, yeah, they'll be here soon yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And like the, I was just looking this morning about like what are the 10 biggest fire upgrades that are coming and? And the compliance is ever changing but it's ramping up more and more. Um, you've got the fire detection and alarm systems. Like that is the the fire panels. If you're ever wondering what they actually look like, they are like the glass box in the foyer. Um, yeah, often got the glass panel at the front and tells you pretty much everything going on in the building. It can pinpoint where exactly something's been triggered yes, it's genius.
Speaker 1:It saves rather than the fire is having to go through every unit. They know straight away where it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, another thing we're seeing is and this is an expensive one is the sprinkler systems. So in the common areas you'll find there's, you know, emergency sprinklers and like they'll dampen common areas. So you know again they can turn on. Fire doors seem so logical, but the front door of most apartment buildings they're not just any front door, they're built to fire code.
Speaker 2:they're really expensive and they compartmentalize the fire with from oxygen so they slow down the spread from from compartment to compartment in the building another one as well I'm finding is um hydrant systems and they're located generally at the front of the building if they're not already connected to another mains point. So if you're walking down the street and you see, you know a fire hydrant and it's sort of positioned towards a particular building and it looked like it's sort of fairly new and it's popped up out of nowhere. That's why, um, but some of these things like 50 hundred grand in cost, um emergency and exit lighting, um, you know lots of signage and um, yeah, that's just an example of some of the stuff you're going to find in your building. If it's not already done, you know you can factor it in as an expense, um, and if it's already in there, you know someone previously has kind of paid for that as a part of a special levy or a strata levy. So there's value in it.
Speaker 1:I look and it's all like you roll your eyes back until you don't, um, and I think, make yourself aware, or at least make sure there's someone in your strata building that that has an awareness. So after this event happened, um, the building manager and I looked at each other because I'm their business hours, you know, six days a week, 12 hours a day. He's there at night and we both looked at each other and said we really got to know our shit. So we're actually getting out our fire guys to train us on. You know how that building works in terms of fire. So we know, look, we're not going to be putting out fires, but even if you know muster stations, um, you know where everyone goes in the event of a fire identifying, you know how everything works and stuff like that. But even just the basic knowledge that I did not know that the building is connected or not connected and relies on a call to the fire department, you just assume that as soon as you, it's a bigger building and you hear a trigger and there's a beautiful big fire panel that of course they're going to get called. No, call them. You want to know the funniest bit what's up? It's embarrassing.
Speaker 1:This guy walks from across the road and there's another building of 70 across the road that's been there for six months, 12 months. He comes across and go to call the fire department. We're like no, no, it comes, you know automatically when it rings, you know. And he's like yeah, no, no, you guys aren't connected. And then the two old guys, these guys like your age, billy, and then the two old guys like morris is probably 60 and there's me, 50, 48. When we look at it with morris and I look at each other, we go. Morris goes, mate, we've been here for 10 years. You know I'm the building manager, you know we've always we've had the fire. He's out a couple of time, of course, this is connected. And he goes.
Speaker 1:The young guy goes yeah, no, uh, you know, I was someone I'll see, the other I'll see a couple months ago and someone was saying the building's not connected and we're like, nah, mate, just it's all. Like if we could have said what we thought it was thought, it would have been like, hey, what do you know he's talking about? Just just get back across, for we got this sorted, mate. We got this sorted. He was bloody right. He was bloody right and it's law and it's look. It's a compliant building. It gets checked every like three months or six months. We have the fire, the fire guys, all over our building. So it's a compliant building. But some don't assume your building's connected to triple o.
Speaker 1:You got a ring yeah, yeah, good practice run last night, but there's room for improvement, it's good to know, uh, and before I go, I just want to say, um, these guys in emergency services, respect to you, like I feel like you know police, fire um ambulance, you know you it's you're only there in trauma situations and and it's nice just to be thankful for these guys and what they do and, um, and give them a shout out thank you, yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:Their knowledge is power. There you go massive thanks billy bob everyone have a great day.
Speaker 1:See you later, get down low and go, go, go bye.