Fire Safety Guides
Straight answers to the questions building owners, facilities managers and management companies ask about fire safety compliance in Ireland. Written and reviewed by our engineering team.
What Is I.S. 3218? A Commercial Building Owner's Guide
I.S. 3218 is the Irish Standard for fire detection and alarm systems for buildings. It covers how a system is designed, installed, commissioned, serviced and certified, and it is the standard a competent person works to when certifying a commercial fire alarm in Ireland.
Read the guideHow Often Should a Commercial Fire Alarm Be Serviced in Ireland?
Under I.S. 3218 a commercial fire detection and alarm system is serviced routinely by a competent person, typically quarterly, with certification issued annually. Separately, the building's own responsible person carries out a weekly test and records it in the system log book.
Read the guideFire Alarm Servicing vs Fire Alarm Certification: What Is the Difference?
Servicing is the work: an engineer attends, tests devices and equipment and records faults. Certification is the document issued by a competent person confirming the system meets the standard for the period covered. You need both, and certification depends on the servicing being done.
Read the guideWhat Is I.S. 3217 Emergency Lighting?
I.S. 3217 is the Irish Standard for emergency lighting. It covers how escape route and open area lighting is designed, installed, tested and certified, including the function and duration test regime and the records a building is expected to keep.
Read the guideEmergency Lighting Testing in Commercial Buildings
Emergency lighting is tested in two ways: routine function tests confirming each luminaire illuminates on supply failure, and an annual full duration discharge test confirming it stays lit for its rated period. Both are recorded, per luminaire, in the building's records.
Read the guideCommercial Fire Alarm Types: Conventional vs Addressable vs Wireless
A conventional system identifies the zone in alarm. An addressable system identifies the individual device. A wireless system uses radio links instead of cabling and can be either. The right choice comes from the building's size, layout and how intrusive cabling would be.
Read the guideWhat Happens During a Commercial Fire Alarm Service?
An engineer checks the panel, batteries, sounders and interfaces, tests a proportion of the detection devices so all are covered across the service cycle, verifies the cause and effect where relevant, and issues a written service record listing anything found.
Read the guideFire Alarm Maintenance Contracts: What Should Be Included?
A maintenance contract should state exactly which systems are covered, how often each is serviced, what certification is issued, what happens outside working hours and how faults are reported and resolved. If any of those is vague in the proposal, it will be vague in practice.
Read the guideFire Safety Records to Have Ready Before an Inspection
A commercial building should be able to produce, on request, its system certification, the service records for each system, the fire alarm log book with weekly test entries, emergency lighting test results and the fire fighting equipment schedule.
Read the guideHow to Manage Fire Safety Maintenance Across Multiple Sites
Multi-site fire safety works when every property follows the same servicing schedule, produces the same documentation and reports into one place. The usual failure is not a missed service at one site, it is nobody holding a view across all of them.
Read the guideQuestion about your own building?
An engineer can survey the site, review the existing systems and documentation, and set out what is required in writing.
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