What Is a Fire Watch? When UK Buildings Need One

What a fire watch is

In general use, a fire watch means temporary, people-based fire cover. This is a plain description rather than a legal definition, and none of the sources cited in this article defines the term itself. One or more people patrol a building or site, look for signs of fire, raise the alarm and help people get out while the normal fire protection is out of action or the fire risk is temporarily raised. It stands in for the systems that would usually do that job, such as a working alarm or intact fire separation.

One official form is waking watch. Government defines it as a system in which suitably trained persons continually patrol all floors and the exterior perimeter of a building (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (GOV.UK)). Guidance on the Interim Measures Alarm Fund treats waking watch and alarms as short-term options that mitigate an immediate risk, not a substitute for fixing the underlying problem (Homes England (GOV.UK)).

So this is an interim measure, not a fix. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the Fire Safety Order), the responsible person must carry out and keep up to date a fire risk assessment and implement measures that minimise the risk to life and property from fire (Health and Safety Executive). Where essential fire safety equipment is found faulty or out of service, the responsible person must immediately assess the risk the failure poses and identify the remedial actions needed to mitigate it (Home Office (GOV.UK)). A fire watch can be one of those measures.

Who decides interim cover is needed

The responsible person decides. On construction sites the Fire Safety Order sets the law on general fire safety, and HSE says the responsible person will usually be the main or principal contractor in control of the site (Health and Safety Executive).

The duty is to carry out and keep up to date a fire risk assessment and to put in place measures that minimise the risk to life and property from fire (Health and Safety Executive). Home Office guidance says there is no set legal review frequency, but the assessment must be reviewed when you suspect it is no longer valid or when the premises or processes change significantly (Home Office (GOV.UK)). A dead alarm panel or ceilings coming down in an occupied office are exactly that kind of change. So is a fault found overnight on a warehouse and industrial site security patrol: it needs assessing, not just logging.

A watch is one possible action from that review. One of the steps in HSE’s five-step site fire risk assessment is to record the risks and action taken, make a clear fire safety plan and make sure people understand what to do if there is a fire (Health and Safety Executive). A security provider can supply the people to carry out the watch. It does not make the decision.

Situations that can call for interim cover

Three situations commonly call for interim cover, each with a different legal hook. The table sets out, for each, the legal basis, who decides, where the watch starts and what closes it. None of the sources cited here sets a typical duration, so none is given.

Fire alarm or other fire protection is faulty

Article 17 of the Fire Safety Order requires the responsible person to keep fire safety facilities, equipment and devices properly maintained, working efficiently and kept in good repair, and it applies in England and Wales (legislation.gov.uk (The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 17)). Defects must be repaired as soon as practicable, and anyone tasked with testing and maintenance must be competent to do so (Home Office (GOV.UK)).

Home Office guidance on faulty equipment does not use the words ‘fire watch’ (Home Office (GOV.UK)). What it asks for is an immediate assessment of the risk the failure poses and identification of the remedial actions needed to mitigate it (Home Office (GOV.UK)). People-based cover is one option that assessment may lead to.

For offices, shops and industrial units the sequence is the same: assess the risk immediately, decide what cover the gap needs, get the repair done as soon as practicable and record the change and the repair in the risk assessment (Home Office (GOV.UK)).

Construction or refurbishment work

HSE says the Fire Safety Order sets the law on general fire safety on construction sites (Health and Safety Executive).

In occupied buildings such as offices, HSE says the work must not interfere with existing escape routes, fire separation, alarms, dry risers or sprinkler systems (Health and Safety Executive). Where a project does affect them, the risk assessment must be reviewed, because it must be reviewed whenever the premises or processes change significantly or it may no longer be valid (Home Office (GOV.UK)). HSE also says nominated people on site should be trained to use extinguishers, and site warning systems must be distinctive and audible (Health and Safety Executive).

Hot works

Where hot works such as welding, grinding and torch-applied roofing are planned, decide before work starts whether the task needs someone watching during the work and for a period after it stops. No authoritative duration for that period is cited in this article, and none should be read into it. Agree the period in writing with the responsible person, record it in the hot work permit if the site uses one, and name the person who confirms that the watch has ended. Watch duties on a project can sit alongside construction site security, so one team covers the hoarding, the hot-work area and the fire points out of hours.

Residential buildings with fire safety defects (waking watch)

Waking watch applies to residential blocks in England where the evacuation strategy is temporarily changed from stay put to simultaneous evacuation. Government guidance describes it as a ‘dynamic’ interim measure, tied to that temporary change, while installing a fire alarm system is a ‘static’ interim measure (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (GOV.UK)). Both are short-term options that mitigate an immediate risk, not a way of fixing the building (Homes England (GOV.UK)).

For housing associations, local authorities and managing agents, the watch is the people-based bridge until an alarm is installed or the defect is remedied.

What the people on watch do

In a waking watch, the people on duty continually patrol all floors and the exterior perimeter (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (GOV.UK)). On a construction site, nominated people should be trained to use extinguishers (Health and Safety Executive). Beyond that, Home Office guidance says fire safety training must be suitable and sufficient to let people understand the fire safety measures in the premises and the actions they must take, and it must be adapted to new or changed risks identified in the fire risk assessment (Home Office (GOV.UK)).

That is general training under the Order; the guidance sets no specific qualification for people on watch (Home Office (GOV.UK)). As a buyer, make sure the briefing covers where the fire points are, which alarm zones are isolated, what the evacuation strategy is for the duration, and who to call. Agree the routes and intervals for the premises in question and write them down.

The list below is a suggested briefing for buyers to adapt. It is not a legal list, and nothing in it is required by the sources cited in this article:

• patrolling the agreed route at the agreed interval;
• checking that fire points and escape routes are clear and intact;
• raising the alarm and calling 999 on finding fire or smoke;
• using extinguishers only if trained to do so and it is safe (Health and Safety Executive);
• supporting evacuation under the strategy in force for the duration;
• briefing the incoming shift at handover.

An illustrative patrol

The example below is illustrative only. It shows the shape of a route and a log, not a standard or a requirement.

Take a four-storey block on simultaneous evacuation with two stair cores. The route runs from the ground floor lobby up stair A to the top floor, along each corridor, down stair B and round the exterior perimeter, then repeats continuously (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (GOV.UK)). Each log entry records the time, the area, what was seen and what was done:

The escalation routes below are illustrative too, not a requirement. In this example, fire or smoke goes to 999 and the evacuation starts; a fault with a fire door, call point, detector or emergency light goes to the responsible person and the alarm or maintenance engineer; a blocked escape route or propped fire door is cleared on the spot and reported to the duty manager, at the next handover at the latest.

What the cover costs

Government (MHCLG) data on waking watch in residential buildings in England was collected between June and September 2020 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (GOV.UK)). In that data set, the hourly rate per person in 2020 ranged from £12.00 to £30.00 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (GOV.UK)). The median hourly rate in 2020 was £13.99, and the median monthly cost per building in 2020 was £11,361 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (GOV.UK)). Both mean and median monthly costs were higher in London than in the rest of England (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (GOV.UK)).

MHCLG says the data was not collected using a random sampling methodology, may not be nationally representative, and is not an Official Statistics release (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (GOV.UK)). It is also 2020 data (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (GOV.UK)), so current quotes will differ. This article cites no published figures for hot work cover or for cover during an alarm fault in commercial premises, so for those cases ask for itemised quotes.

As general advice when comparing quotes, ask each provider how its price is affected by: how many people are on duty at once; whether cover is round the clock, for working hours only or for nights and weekends; whether the provider sets a minimum shift length; the size and number of floors to patrol; and how long the watch runs. For a hot work or alarm-fault watch, ask the same questions at a smaller scale. Duration is the point you can most directly set, which is why the end point matters as much as the start. Treat an unusually low quote with care: ask whether the people on duty are SIA-licensed security officers and how they will be briefed on the premises, bearing in mind that the guidance sets no specific fire watcher qualification (Home Office (GOV.UK)), and check that supervision, a written log and the handover briefing are included in the price rather than left out of it.

Who pays for a waking watch in residential buildings

This applies in England only. Government says the costs of interim fire safety measures such as waking watch are covered by the Building Safety Act leaseholder protections and are treated the same as other non-cladding costs (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (GOV.UK)). Where leaseholders are protected by caps, building owners and landlords must pay for the watch even if they cannot pass the cost on (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (GOV.UK)).

If a leaseholder’s property is worth less than £175,000, or £325,000 in London, their cap is zero and they cannot be asked to share any costs (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (GOV.UK)). For most properties above that value, the cap is £10,000, or £15,000 in London, payable over 10 years (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (GOV.UK)). Interim measure costs a leaseholder has already paid over the last 5 years count towards that cap (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (GOV.UK)).

Where costs can be recharged through the service charge, Section 20 consultation is required for qualifying works in England if any tenant’s contribution would exceed £250 (legislation.gov.uk (Service Charges (Consultation Requirements) (England) Regulations 2003, reg 6)). Block managers who already run concierge security for residential blocks will know that a long-running cost is easier to explain to residents when the end date is visible. Take legal advice on your own leases before deciding how to treat these costs.

Ending the watch: alarms and repairs

A watch should run for as short a time as possible. For residential buildings in England, the Interim Measures Alarm Fund meets the costs of installing fire alarms to replace or mitigate the need for waking watch (Homes England (GOV.UK)). It supports replacing waking watch with common fire alarm systems where feasible, in line with NFCC simultaneous evacuation guidance, and once funding is agreed the alarm should be installed as quickly as possible so the waking watch can be removed (Homes England (GOV.UK)).

Only the Responsible Entity or Responsible Person, or an authorised representative, can apply; leaseholders and residents cannot, and should contact the building owner or managing agent (Homes England (GOV.UK)). The fund does not pay for the waking watch itself, nor for residual fire wardens or evacuation management staff where they are still deemed necessary after an alarm is installed (Homes England (GOV.UK)).

An alarm is still an interim measure. It does not replace fixing the underlying fire safety problems, and responsibility for the building’s fire safety stays with the Responsible Person under the Fire Safety Order even where the fund pays for the alarm (Homes England (GOV.UK)).

Where the trigger was faulty equipment, defects must be repaired as soon as practicable and the risk assessment reviewed when circumstances change (Home Office (GOV.UK)); no cited source says when the watch itself ends, so agree that point with the responsible person. In high-rise residential buildings in England in scope of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, meaning over 18 metres or at least seven storeys, where the fault could not be rectified within 24 hours, the fire and rescue service must be told about the repair as well as the original defect (Home Office (GOV.UK)). Once systems are working again, one option a buyer may consider for out-of-hours cover is keyholding and alarm response rather than people on every floor.

What to agree before booking fire watch cover

These are buyer questions to settle with any provider, not legal requirements. Agree them in writing before the first shift.

• Which finding in the fire risk assessment the watch addresses, and who signed it off.
• Which areas, floors and external perimeter are patrolled, and which are excluded.
• Hours of cover, number of people per shift, and how handovers work.
• Minimum staffing per floor or zone, and what happens if someone is absent.
• Whether the people on duty are SIA-licensed security officers. This is a buyer choice rather than a fire safety requirement: the guidance sets no specific fire watcher qualification (Home Office (GOV.UK)). The SIA’s guidance on contracted fire watch and waking watch services, which is written about residential properties, says contracted staff who perform licensable security activities must hold an SIA licence whatever their job title, and that a fire watch person whose role does not involve a licensable security activity does not need one; a front line licence is needed where they also carry out a licensable activity, such as preventing theft or damage (Security Industry Authority (GOV.UK)).
• Supervisory visits: how often, by whom, and how they are recorded.
• How patrols and observations are recorded, and how that record reaches the responsible person.
• Who is called in which circumstances: the fire and rescue service, the site or duty manager, the alarm engineer.
• How the people on watch will be briefed on the premises’ fire safety measures and the actions expected of them, so the briefing is suitable and sufficient (Home Office (GOV.UK)).
• The expected end point: a repair date, an alarm installation date or a milestone in the works, and who confirms it.

Albiz Security, based in London since 1987, provides fire watch and fire marshal cover with SIA-licensed security officers for commercial organisations, construction sites, housing associations, local authorities, industrial estates and retail outlets. To discuss cover for your building or site, email info@albiz.co.uk, call 020 8305 1122, or use the quote form at https://www.albiz.co.uk/contact/.