Question: What happens if your fire safety contractor is unable to inspect every unit during your fire inspection for your annual fire safety statement?
Answer: We have to go back and reinspect. If the accredited practitioner cannot prove that they have inspected and verified all of the essential fire safety measures, they can’t sign it off.
We have to go back and inspected. Under the current legislation, if the accredited practitioner cannot prove that they have inspected and verified all of the essential fire safety measures, they cannot endorse that measure, they can’t sign it off every year. Realistically, we have to go back and reinspect. That’s what we do. Does it make us popular? No. But is it important? Yes.
You have a 50% greater chance of surviving a fire in your home if you had a working smoke alarm. The very thing we are inspecting in that unit is the smoke alarm to make sure it will perform in fire situations. So I think it’s really important, however unpopular it may be, but the legislation says we must do it, therefore we do it. As a result of the last year or so of enforcing that, we’ve seen a substantial improvement in the number of people who actually will be there at their annual test, which is really great. People are realising the importance of it now it is being enforced.
This post appears in the April 2022 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Rob Broadhead
2020 Fire Protection
E: rob.broadhead@2020fire.com.au
P: 1300 340 210
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