Smoke detectors too alert

Fire safety officer Russell Dickson at the Regional Fire Headquarters in Pitt St. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

A fire safety chief has raised alarms about inadequate ventilation in Auckland apartments, claiming many residents cannot cook in their units because smoke detectors are activated.

Russell Dickson, co-ordinator for unwanted false alarms and a fire safety officer in the Auckland Fire Region, said few apartment owners or tenants thought about fire safety issues when they moved into a unit.

He said some occupants told him they were afraid to cook or even have a "romantic candlelight dinner".

He said discharges from rangehoods vented internally, steam from showers, fumes from cooking and emissions from clothes driers activated smoke detection systems in many blocks throughout the city.

As a result, residents, faced with paying thousands of dollars for false alarm callouts, were taping over smoke detection devices to alleviate the problems. Other residents were opening their doors on to corridors, but the discharges, emissions, steam and fumes then activated smoke detectors in the common areas.

This could result in a total evacuation of the building.

Dickson said false alarms were also being activated by visitors. Unable to contact a resident within a block, the visitors activated the exterior fire alarm system, which resulted in the main doors to the block opening.

"Several apartment body corporates have accumulated false alarm charges that run into five figures," he said.

"This is not to count the ongoing charges from the fire alarm company, which services the alarm systems.

"After more than two unwanted fire alarm activations, when the entire building is evacuated, the building owners are charged $1000 plus GST.

"This will then be passed on to the occupiers who are angry and concerned. Most consider they have been poorly served by the building legislation."

Developer Culum Manson, of Parnell-based Manson Developments, said it was the first time he had heard about the issue, but the behaviour of apartment owners or tenants could not be controlled.

"It makes sense - people do silly things," Manson said. 
 

Julie Carter, who sells units, said publicity about fire dangers was unhelpful.

"It's not helpful to the industry in general - owners, developers or body corporates - to air these things publicly," she said, although she agreed there were some very real issues.

"There should be greater emphasis placed on these issues at the planning stage."

Other emergency service chiefs have also raised safety issues about the units.

Last month, St John Ambulance duty manager Andrew Herbert said security doors prevented staff getting inside apartment buildings and many lifts were too small to take a standard stretcher.

Advanced paramedic Simon Bird said limited access to buildings delayed getting to someone who might be seriously injured. He said about half of the Auckland ambulance callouts every day were to apartments and the number was increasing.

Apartment safety issues

* Cooking, drying clothes and showering activates smoke detectors.

* One expert says this is because apartments lack of adequate ventilation.

* So owners disable smoke detectors, risking lives in high-rise blocks.

* Ambulance staff complain of tiny lifts, too tight to take a stretcher.

* Inadequate access to blocks and locked entry doors compound problems.

www.fire.org.nz