Lesson 2.1 - Fire Safety - Checking Fire Order

Summary
If you receive a proposed fire safety upgrade order from Council, check it carefully.

Detail
If you receive a Notice of Intention to Issue a Fire Safety Upgrade Order from the local Council relating to a building you manage you should actually check it during the 3 months you have to dispute it. You should not leave it to an owner to find numerous mistakes in it and raise them with Council.

It is not a good look and could be very expensive for the owners corporation and dangerous for residents if you fail to notice errors and omissions in the order such as the following:

1. The order incorrectly required the entire roof to be fenced, which would have cost $40,000 based on the cost of installing fencing on the balconies a few years earlier, yet the BCA does not require it.
2. It incorrectly required emergency lighting in lift lobbies, yet they are less than 6m long and hence do not require emergency lighting under the BCA. They also have emergency exit lights already that qualify as emergency lighting. Installing the additional unnecessary lighting was quoted at nearly $3,000.
3. It specified one single smoke detector on common property in the entire high-rise building.
4. It did not specify any fire alarms on common property
5. It did not specify any heat sensors in the basement car park
6. It did not specify a fire hose in the basement car park
7. It did not specify any complying pedestrian exits from the basement car park
8. It did not specify a lighted Exit sign in the basement car park
9. It did not specify the installation of a fire alarm panel
10. It did not specify the installation of an external strobe light
11. It did not address the non-compliant fire stairs railings
12. It did not address the non-compliant fire door notices in the stairwell which carry an $11,000 penalty for non-compliance
13. It did not address many other mandatory requirements specified in the BCA