Searching for a fire alarm company near you in Northern Ireland turns up plenty of names, and most of them look much the same from the outside. The most useful thing to know before you ring any of them is that fire alarm work is a separate discipline from security alarm work, with its own standard, its own certification schemes and its own legal duties sitting on you as the building owner or employer. A company that is excellent at intruder alarms is not automatically qualified for fire, and the reverse is also true.
So the first question is not “are you certified”, it is “are you certified for fire, and can I see the scope”. Ask for the certification number, look it up on the certification body’s register, and read what disciplines it actually covers.
We will be straight about our own position, because it is exactly the distinction this article is about. Advanced Overwatch designs, installs and maintains fire alarm systems to BS 5839-1. We are SSAIB certified under NIRE127, but that certification covers intruder alarms, CCTV and access control, not fire. We do not hold BAFE. If a fire alarm company tells you it is certified, ask which scheme and which scope, and apply the same scrutiny to us.
The duty that sits with you, not the installer
This is the part most building owners in Northern Ireland do not find out until an inspection.
Under NI fire safety legislation, the duty to maintain fire safety measures rests with the appropriate person, which broadly means whoever is subject to a requirement under Article 25 or 26 of the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006. In most workplaces that is the employer. The relevant regulations are the Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010, SR 2010 No. 325.
Worth noting if you have read English guidance: the term there is “responsible person”, under different legislation that does not apply in Northern Ireland. The NI term is “appropriate person”. The duty is similar but the wording, and the legislation behind it, is not the same.
The practical consequence is that a service contract does not discharge your obligations. Your installer handles the periodic servicing. You handle the routine testing between visits. Both need to happen.
Weekly testing is your job, and it is weekly
BS 5839-1 expects the appropriate person to actuate a manual call point once a week, rotating through the call points so that each one is tested in turn over time, and to record it in the fire log book.
Weekly. Not monthly, not when someone remembers. The point of rotating the call points is that over a period every device and every zone gets proven, and the point of the log is that you can demonstrate it happened.
This is the single most common gap we find on taking over a system. The equipment is fine, the servicing is up to date, and the log book has four entries in two years. If an inspector asks, the log book is the evidence, and its absence is the finding.
A good fire alarm company will show whoever holds the duty how to do the weekly test and how to fill in the log, at handover, in person. If nobody has ever walked you through your log book, that is a reasonable thing to ask for.
How often should the system be serviced?
For most commercial premises, the minimum is twice yearly, meaning a competent engineer attends every six months. Higher-risk premises and larger or higher-category systems may need quarterly attention, and your fire risk assessment should drive that decision rather than a default.
We will flag something here because it affects our own site as much as anyone’s: a lot of published guidance, including some of our own older material that we are correcting, states quarterly servicing as a blanket minimum. Twice yearly is the baseline for most commercial premises. Quarterly is a step up that specific systems and risk profiles justify. If a company insists you need quarterly visits, ask what in your risk assessment or system category leads them there. It may well be justified. It should not be an assumption.
Ask also what a service visit actually covers, and what happens between visits. A service is not just a signature. It should include testing a proportion of devices, checking the panel, batteries and standby supply, reviewing the log book, and giving you a written report that lists defects rather than a certificate that says “satisfactory” with nothing behind it.
Questions worth asking any fire alarm company
What is your certification, which scheme, and what is the scope? Look it up. Check it says fire.
Which category is my system, and who decided that? Systems are specified by category, from L1 through L5 for life protection and P1 or P2 for property protection. The category should come from your fire risk assessment. If a company cannot tell you your category, it does not know what your system is for.
Will you show me how to do the weekly test? The answer should be yes, at handover, without being asked twice.
What is your response time for a fault, and is it in writing? A fire alarm in fault is not protecting anyone.
Is the quote for design, install, commissioning and certification, or just the hardware? Commissioning and certification are where corners get cut, because they are invisible on a price list.
Do you install to BS 5839-1, and will I get the certificate? You should receive documentation on completion. If you do not have it, from the point of view of an inspection it did not happen.
What good fire alarm work looks like
A fire alarm system is specified from a fire risk assessment, not from a catalogue. The assessment establishes what you are protecting, life or property or both, and to what category. The design follows. Detector type and placement follow that, because a heat detector in a kitchen and a smoke detector in a corridor are answering different questions, and getting that wrong produces either false alarms or gaps.
For dwellings the standard is different: BS 5839-6:2019 applies, and grading there runs on a separate scale. Grade D, put simply, means mains-powered detectors with battery backup, and it is commonly specified for HMOs and rental properties. The full grading detail is more involved than that summary suggests, so if you are a landlord working to a specific requirement, get the grade confirmed in writing rather than working from a summary.
We work with fire detection equipment from established manufacturers and specify to suit the building rather than to suit a stock order. We install to BS 5839-1 and BS 5839-6, we commission and certificate what we install, and we hold ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001 and ISO 45001. We have been working across Northern Ireland from our Coleraine base since 2017.
We do not recommend self-installation of fire detection in any commercial premises. Beyond the competence question, an uncommissioned, uncertificated system will not stand up to inspection.
Related questions
Does my fire alarm company need to be BAFE registered?
BAFE registration is a recognised third-party scheme for fire safety providers and many organisations look for it, but it is not a legal requirement in itself. What the legislation requires is that the work is carried out by a competent person and that the system is properly maintained. BAFE is one way of evidencing competence, and a well-regarded one. It is not the only way, and its absence does not automatically mean a company is not competent, just as its presence does not remove your duty to check the scope of what is registered. We do not hold BAFE, and we say so rather than implying otherwise through adjacent certifications. If BAFE registration is a procurement requirement for your organisation, you should ask for it directly and verify it on the BAFE register.
What is the difference between a fire alarm service and a fire risk assessment?
They are different pieces of work, often confused, and you need both. A fire risk assessment looks at the building as a whole: what could start a fire, who is at risk, how people get out, and what measures are needed. It drives the specification of the alarm system, including its category. A fire alarm service is the periodic maintenance of the system that already exists, checking it works and recording defects. A service does not tell you whether the system is the right system. If your building has changed use, been extended or been reconfigured, the risk assessment needs revisiting, and the alarm specification may need to change with it. A service visit will not catch that.
Can I use one company for both my fire alarm and my security alarm?
Yes, and many buildings do, provided the company is genuinely competent in both and you have checked the scope of its certifications separately. The convenience is real: one contract, one point of contact, one company that knows the building. The risk is assuming that certification in one discipline implies competence in the other. Ask for the certification for each discipline and check each scope on the relevant register. A company worth using will not be irritated by the question. We install both, we are SSAIB certified for intruder alarms, CCTV and access control, and we install fire to BS 5839-1 without holding fire certification, which is precisely the distinction we are recommending you check.
Standards explained
BS 5839-1:2017+A1:2020 is the British Standard for the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of fire detection and fire alarm systems in non-domestic premises. Amendment 1 was published in 2020. It is the standard most commercial fire alarm work in the UK is specified against.
BS 5839-6:2019 is the equivalent standard for dwellings. It uses its own grading scale. Grade D, as a simplified summary, means mains-powered detection with battery backup, and it is commonly applied to HMOs and rental properties.
System categories (L1 to L5, P1, P2) describe what a fire alarm system is designed to protect. The L categories are for life protection, with L1 the most comprehensive coverage. The P categories are for property protection. The category should come from a fire risk assessment.
Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 (SR 2010 No. 325) are the regulations governing fire safety duties in Northern Ireland, made under the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006. They place duties on the appropriate person, which in most workplaces means the employer.
Appropriate person is the Northern Ireland term for the duty-holder, meaning a person subject to a requirement under Article 25 or 26 of the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006. The equivalent term in England and Wales is “responsible person”, under different legislation that does not apply here.
BAFE is a third-party registration scheme for fire safety service providers. Advanced Overwatch does not hold BAFE registration.
EN 54 is the European standard series covering the components of fire detection and alarm systems. The UK designation is BS EN 54.
If you want to know whether your current fire alarm arrangements would stand up to scrutiny, we will look at the system and the log book and tell you honestly where the gaps are. Call us on 028 7087 8077, email info@advancedoverwatch.com, or find us at 1st Floor Beresford House, 2 Beresford Road, Coleraine, BT52 1GE. We cover Northern Ireland from Coleraine, with regional contact numbers for Belfast on 028 9099 3566, Derry/Londonderry on 028 7187 8123, Magherafelt on 028 7966 8330 and Omagh on 028 8288 8166.
SSAIB Certified Company: NIRE127. ISO 9001, 14001, 27001, 45001 Certified.
