Residents can carry out waking watch patrols, say fire chiefs

The waking watch was a measure introduced by the NFCC in the wake of Grenfell to ensure safety in blocks were found to be clad in dangerous materials. The evacuation policy in those building also had to change from stay put to simultaneous evacuation.

A waking watch involves one or more people walking throughout a block or development, checking for signs of fire and sounding the alarm if a fire starts. In most cases, leaseholders are forced to hire private companies to carry out these duties, often costing tens of thousands of pounds every month.

According to the new guidance, groups of residents will be allowed to carry out the patrols as long as they have the consent of the rest of the block, are appropriately equipped to carry out their duties and are trained in accordance with NFCC requirements.

The guidance does not outline the specific training needed to carry out the role, but said that those carrying out patrols should be aware of the principles of fire, how to spot indications of fire and how to raise an alarm in the event of a fire.

Waking watches carried out by residents can significantly reduce the costs of the service for leaseholders across the country. So far only a handful of blocks have seen residents carry out their waking watch patrols.
The Northpoint block in Bromley, south-east London, is one of them and leaseholders have halved their waking watch monthly bill from £24,000 to £14,000.

However, there are concerns that resident-run waking watches could be impractical due to requirements from building insurers.

The document published today by the NFCC was published in conjunction with the Fire Protection Association, the Institution of Fire Engineers and the Association of Residential Managing Agents, and had input from other stakeholders.

Among other changes in the latest edition of the guidance is advice for building owners to consult with leaseholders to explore the cost/benefit options around temporary measures and assess whether a common fire alarm is more beneficial in the long term.

This comes after a number of blocks, particularly those with Grenfell-style aluminium composite material cladding, have had waking watches present in their buildings for a number of years and been forced to pay out thousands per leaseholder to keep the service.

The NFCC said this new advice underlines its firm belief that building owners should move to install common fire alarms as quickly as possible in order to reduce the dependence on waking watches.

The guidance also introduces a clear distinction between a waking watch, which has the role of patrolling a building’s common areas and raising the alarm if there is a fire, and evacuation management, who is in charge of co-ordinating the evacuation of residents, and treats them as separate roles.

Roy Wilsher, NFCC Chair, said: “Waking watches have been used prior to this current building safety crisis as a short term measure in buildings with increased fire risks and should only be used temporarily.

"It is clear that waking watch should not be the first measure to mitigate risk and the Consolidated Advice Note provides guidance on this.

"We share the very real concerns that residents have about how long some of these measures have been relied upon, and how waking watch is being implemented by responsible persons around the country.

"We also do not believe the costs of serious building defects should end with leaseholders, and have called on government for support and to consider more ways of how costs can be recovered from those who design and construct buildings."