Emergency voice communication systems are the fixed talking links a building keeps for the moments when a phone in a pocket is not good enough: a disabled refuge on a protected landing, a fire telephone outstation the fire service plugs into, and a master station somebody answers. They exist because a strategy that leaves somebody waiting has to give them a way to say they are there.
Refuge points, and why a refuge without one is a waiting room
A refuge is a relatively safe place, usually a protected stair landing, where somebody who cannot use the stairs can wait for assisted evacuation. A refuge with no working way to tell anyone you are in it is a room with a sign on it. The outstation at the refuge and the master station somebody staffs are what turn the place into part of a plan.
Fire telephones are a different job
Fire telephone outstations exist for the fire service to talk between floors and the bridgehead during an incident, on a system that does not depend on the public network or on a mobile signal inside a concrete core. They are specified through the fire strategy for the building, and they are not interchangeable with refuge communication even where the hardware looks similar.
Who answers, and from where
A system answered by nobody is the common failure. The master station has to be at a place that is staffed or reached quickly during an evacuation, usually at the fire alarm panel or the bridgehead, and the procedures have to name who goes to it and what they do with what they hear. That belongs in the emergency plan, not only in the commissioning file.
Testing and records
Outstations and master stations are tested on a routine cycle, every station proved over the cycle rather than a sample, with faults recorded and cleared. Article 17 requires facilities of this kind to be kept in efficient working order by a suitable system of maintenance, and article 15 requires the procedures they serve to exist in the first place.
Questions people ask about emergency voice communication systems
Are emergency voice communication systems a legal requirement?
The requirement comes through the fire strategy and building regulations guidance for the building rather than by name in the Order. Once installed, the Order requires them to be maintained in efficient working order.
Is a refuge point the same as a fire telephone?
No. A refuge outstation is for somebody waiting for assisted evacuation to speak to whoever is managing it. A fire telephone is for the fire service during an incident.
Who should answer the master station?
Somebody named in the emergency plan who can reach it quickly during an evacuation, usually at the panel or the bridgehead. A station nobody is assigned to is the usual reason the system fails when used.