Description

What is a fire alarm call point & what does it do?

A fire alarm call point (also referred to as a red manual call point or a break-glass call point) is essentially a small box, mounted on a wall which contains a button or a lever that allows you to manually trigger the fire alarm in a building.

They are an essential part of any building’s fire detection system, as they can:

• alert everyone inside to a potential fire danger by sounding the alarm
• get the evacuation process started as quickly as possible
• sound the alarm even if the automated detection system has failed
• notify the fire alarm control panel about the area where the fire is
• alert the fire services about the fire (can be done manually or automatically)
• activate the smoke management system

Depending on the model of the call point you may or may not have to break a glass to reach the button that activates the fire alarm. Some of the latest designs have been adapted to use depressable plastic instead of glass to reduce the possibility of injury to the user and to discourage any acts of vandalism.

If you happen to uncover a fire at work, sounding the fire alarm using a manual call point is the fastest way to get your colleagues’ attention and prompt them to get to safety. If the fire isn’t big enough to have triggered the automatic fire detection system, your proactive actions could help put the flames under control before the fire has had the chance to spread.

Once the manual call point has been used, it has to be reset manually, using a safety key to revert it back to its original state.