Waking watch is a service that sees qualified fire marshals deployed on high-risk properties to assist with fire detection, oversee evacuations, and optimise the building’s fire response strategy.
Our waking watch officers are highly trained and provide effective protection for tenants who find themselves living in properties with significant fire safety failings.
These properties have been identified as having similar fire risks to those found in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and in need of additional fire safety measures, including a switch to a temporary simultaneous evacuation strategy. Waking watch personnel oversee this transitionary period until a common wired alarm system can be installed.
Not only can we provide waking watch until a common fire alarm system has been installed, but we can install it ourselves, AND it can easily be adapted into a standard alarm system once the fire safety issues are resolved.
With offices all across the UK, we can have waking watch marshals on-site extremely quickly following the results of an EWS1 External Wall Fire Review.
All our services comply with the very latest fire safety legislation and advice from the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC).
Waking watch was introduced as part of “interim” measures following the Grenfell Tower Fire to help implement a simultaneous evacuation strategy on properties with unsafe flammable exterior cladding.
A waking watch service involves highly trained waking watch officers patrolling high rise buildings on the look out for fires or fire safety issues. In the event of a fire, waking watch fire marshals will oversee the evacuation of the building and contact the fire brigade.
Waking watch provided by Select Solutions will remain in place until the fire risk has subsided, as identified by a responsible person during a fire risk assessment, or common fire alarm installation has been completed.
The National Fire Chiefs Council states that waking watch should only ever be a short-term measure, put in place under the cladding or other flammable materials are removed, or a common fire alarm system can be installed.
At Select Solutions, we always try to keep our waking watch services as cost-effective as possible but the fact is that having enough highly trained fire marshals on site 24 hours a day to give sufficient warning in the event of a fire does cost a significant amount.
Unfortunately, promises by the Government to replace dangerous cladding in the aftermath of Grenfell have failed to come to fruition for the most part, and the installation of a common fire alarm is now seen as the best option for those with a waking watch service in place.
Common fire alarms involve an interlinked set of fire detectors installed in all apartments and communal areas within a building. If one is activated, alarms are triggered throughout the property, allowing for a swift simultaneous evacuation to take place.
In December 2020, the Government introduced the Waking Watch relief fund to help with the cost of installing common fire alarms in affected properties as part of NFCC guidance.
Select Solutions not only provide waking watch officers, but can also install an industry leading common fire alarm system that makes their presence redundant and saves residential managing agents and tenants of high-rise buildings a huge amount of stress and money.
Even better, all our common alarm systems can easily be switched to conventional alarm systems once the underlying issues are resolved, saving you from having to pay for two separate alarm system installations.
@ 2025 Select Group LTD
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