Does this affect me?

• We are not changing the way we respond to AFA’s where people sleep (such as care homes, sheltered accommodation, student accomodation or hospitals).
• We will still respond to AFA’s at high-risk premises such as COMAH sites.
• We will still respond to AFA's at education facilities such as schools.
• We will always respond to 999 calls from a person reporting a fire, or sign of fire, in any type of premises at any time.

If you have any questions regarding AFA's and our response please email :

AFAresponse@westyorksfire.gov.uk

This does affect me - what do I need to do?

If you hold responsibility for a building which falls into the category of AFA to which we will no longer respond to without secondary confirmation of a fire you should take these following steps:

• Ensure someone will safely take resonable measures to investigate the source of a fire alarm activation - not putting themselves at risk in doing so.

• Ensure your alarm monitoring company are aware of the nature of the facility or business currently using the building e.g. a children’s nursery, or food storage warehouse.

• Ensure staff or occupants know about these changes and are trained to safely investigate the source of an alarm and make a back-up 999 call if necessary.
• Make sure that you provide your alarm monitoring company with relevant keyholder information, for out of hours responses to your premises.
• Make sure that your alarms are well maintained.
• If, as a result of these changes, you are required to amend your existing fire alarm procedures, then this should be recorded within your fire risk assessment and any changes communicated to all staff.