Question:
Because I am hard of hearing and do not hear fire alarms, I always notify reception when I check in. A few weeks ago I did this. In the night the fire alarm went off, and all the guests left the hotel. No-one came to wake me. The hotel claim that they went to investigate the alarm first, and on discovering it was a false alarm they decided not to disturb me. The local fire safety officer with responsibility for hotels considers this to be a satisfactory policy. I think it is completely wrong. How can I get this considered further within the fire service? How best can I take this forward? Or would you agree that it is acceptable to leave a deaf person in a hotel room while the cause of the alarm is determined?

Answer: I speak as a retired Fire Safety Officer, 13 years doing fire safety. Retired 2.5 years. In my time this scenario would be totally unacceptable in any circumstances. I can recall a similar scenario similar the management did not evacuate etc and it turned out that there was a fire and someone was trapped in the room where the fire was. Sadly standards as slipping in the fire service and some of the younger less experienced would accept this scenario, because it is forced upon them by management and class it as 'risk assessment'. The fire service (not fire firefighters, but the management) are obsessed with reducing the number of false alarms that they receive/respond to. They are doing this at the expense of peoples lives. In the Brigade I worked, I beleive the current policy is that they will not respond to an alarm in an occupied building until someone has confirmed there is actually a fire in the building. Before anyone responds that I degrading firefighters, I am not. I am appaulled about 2 things 1. The management are putting their careers and cost before the public. 2. Its my generation of firefighters that are now in the positions to make these decisions. Its not wot they were taught As far as progressing this forget it. There is a very subtle arguement that they were not complying with the terms of their fire certificate but convincing anyone would be very difficult. The Fire Service at senior management level is a very tight closed circle. You will not break into it. You will just get fed bull. If a firefighter tries to break in, he will find this very career limiting.