Fire Alarm update - 12-05-2024

As many of you know, the Fire Alarm at Plaza Tower has been going off at odd hours the last few days.  A fire alarm system is extremely important to the safety of a high-rise building, and the false alarms are causing complacency among the residents. Here are the steps that are being taken to regain confidence in the Fire Alarm system.

• Plaza Tower had its annual Fire Alarm inspection on 9-19-2024. You may view the 2024 AFPS Fire Alarm Inspection report in the Building Link library, under “Annual Inspections.”

• A proposal for repairs was given to the Board and it has been approved.

• Originally, AFPS was scheduled for next Wednesday, December 11th, to address all of the issues reported on the Annual Inspection.

• Due to recent fire alarm events, Alex (our transition CAM) spoke to the AFPS account manager on 12/4/2024 and AFPS is expediting Plaza’s repairs. This date is TBA.

When the fire alarm goes off, this is what happens:

1. AFPS gets a signal of a fire from the panel.

2. FIRE DEPARTMENT is immediately contacted, followed by the person(s) listed on the emergency contact list.

3. AFPS gets a signal of a troubleshoot on the panel. 

4. AFPS monitoring department will contact those listed on the emergency contact list.

The issues with the present system that need to be addressed:

• Contact numbers are for people on-site during office hours, but off-site after hours.

• Since there is no employee onsite from 8:00PM - 8:00AM, any fire alarms that go off will continue to do so until the Fire Department is onsite and confirms that there is no fire and then shuts it off. This can easily take a minimum of 15-20 minutes. Fire alarms cause the elevators to stop and if a sensor is going off at a high floor, you have to wait for the fire fighters to walk up the emergency stairwells and check the area before shutting the alarm off. 

• Fire fighters do not normally use the intercom, so unless there are staff onsite, no one will alert the residents as to whether there is a real fire or not until the fire department is onsite and they have inspected the building. 

• When a fire alarm goes off after hours, there is no one on-site to let residents know whether or not they need to evacuate the building.

What’s next?

• The contact sheet with AFPS will be updated with accurate information (including the change in management)

• Discussions about how to improve after-hours alarms will be occurring between our transition manager, staff, the new management company, and the board.

• As inconvenient as it is, please treat each fire alarm as a real event and properly evacuate the building. Management will send a reminder out soon of proper evacuation procedures.

• Please feel free to contact Robynn O'Leary, robynnplazatower@gmail.com; or Alex Carrera, managerplazatower@gmail.com for suggestions, concerns, or comments.