June 14, 2011
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First, thanks to those who responded and shared their opinion and comments. Second, you will note from the responses that sometimes, too often, it's not enough to try and "reason out" the answer, think that what makes some sense to you must be the right way or at least an acceptable alternative to the solution. Well, it doesn't work that way all too often. The law or regulation or the way it's interpreted by the regulatory agency - in this case the NYC FD - can be and is precise and strictly construed by the FD.
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Comments
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Ken,
If the account is going to be or found to be offline or not functioning for a period of more that 8 consecutive hours it is the central station's obligation to notify the FDNY that they system is down.
Thank you,
Aaron
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KEN,
READ YOUR INFORMATIVE E-MAILS EVERYDAY AND APPRECIATE YOUR TIME IN COMPOSING THEM.
THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION COMES IN 2 PARTS:
1=IT IS UP TO THE INSTALLER TO RECTIFY THE NON TEST ISSUE.THE CENTRAL STATION RECEIVES THE LATE TO TEST SIGNAL AND INFORMS THE DEALER. IT IS HIS RESPONSIBILITY TO CHECK OUT THE PANEL AND FIGURE OUT WHAT THE PROBLEM IS IN NOT REPORTING THE 24 HOUR TEST.
2=IF THE PROBLEM IS MAJOR AND THE SITE NEEDS TO GO WITHOUT MONITORING FOR ANY PERIOD OVER 8 HOURS THEN IT IS THE CENTRAL STATION THAT INFORMS THE FIRE DEPARTMENT OF THE LOCATION AND HOW LONG THE REPAIRS WILL TAKE TO RESTORE SERVICE TO THE LOCATION.THE LOCATION MUST ALSO PROVIDE A 24 HOUR FIRE WATCH AT THE LOCATION TILL SERVICE IS RESTORED AND THE FIRE DEPARTMENT RECORDS THIS INFORMATION IN THEIR DATA BANK.
HOPE THIS IS HELPFUL .
Philip Blair, General Manager
Counterforce Central Station
UL Approved+Approved to monitor FIRE ALARMS in New York City
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Ken
The approved FDNY Central Station has an obligation to report any interruption of service in excess of 8 hours to the FDNY Central Station Signaling Bureau and/or the Fire Dispatch Center.
The Central Station Signaling Bureau in turn will take action by sending an inspector out to see why services hasn't been restored. Normal procedure is to report the outage first to the Subscriber and Dealer. If they neglect to take corrective action, then the Central station is obliged to report the incident to the FDNY.
Regards,
RON PETRARCA
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Ken,
I am sure NYC has rules and regulations on this, however under the national codes prescribed by NFPA it is incumbent upon the installer to report to the authority having jurisdiction failures of the fire alarm system. Some maintenance and installation companies are reluctant to do this as they may lose the client for turning in the deficiencies to the AHJ but it is the requirement of NFPA.
The inspections services of the Fire Department get some of their revenue from writing "letters of defect" so their follow up is very thorough on installations that are not proper and potentially life threatening. In some locations other than NYC continued maintenance contracts on systems that do not work properly can result in the removal of the license and authorization to work on systems.
Many companies are working on systems that they have no training on or certification to work on from the manufacturer. In addition to a license, factory certification should be required.
I have seen instances where the authorized service company was "too expensive" and the subsequent non- authorized service company cut the trouble buzzer and trouble indicator LEDs on the fire panel so that the malfunctioning panel would not be evident and the unsuspecting occupants were left unprotected.
BA
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Ken
Isn't this defined in the contract between dealer / installer and the central station? The contract specifies the steps central station takes upon signal reception. Most any job, portion of a job, or task can be subcontracted unless specifically forbidden by law. Some dealers may want to dump all responsibility on the central station, other dealers prefer to be in charge of their accounts, but it has to be specified somewhere. If it is FDNY regulation, then the regulation has to specify it.
Dusan