An unmaintained fire alarm fails quietly — a dirty sensor here, a flat battery there — until the day it matters. Gemini AMPM maintains fire detection to Section 6 of BS 5839-1 as a BAFE SP203-1 registered contractor: planned six-monthly inspections, fault rectification, and records that prove your system works.
Section 6 of BS 5839-1 sets out the servicing regime the Fire Safety Order expects a responsible person to follow. The core of it: periodic inspection and testing by a competent organisation at intervals of no more than six months, checking the panel, batteries, standby supplies, a rotating sample of detectors and call points, sounders, interfaces and the false-alarm record. Over a twelve-month cycle, every device in the building must be functionally tested.
Our engineers work through that schedule methodically, then deal with what they find. Faults are rectified on the spot where parts allow, quoted promptly where they don’t, and everything — results, defects, variations from the standard — is entered in your logbook and our service records. If the panel raises a fault between visits, a named engineer is with you within 24 hours.
BS 5839-1 also expects a weekly user test: one call point operated during working hours, a different one each week, to prove the panel and sounders respond and that occupants recognise the signal. It takes two minutes and it’s the single cheapest piece of fire safety evidence a building can generate. We show your staff how to run it, how to log it, and what to do when something doesn’t behave.
The logbook ties the whole regime together. Weekly tests, our six-monthly inspections, false alarms, faults and periods of disconnection all belong in it, because that document is the first thing a fire officer or assessor asks to see. Taking over a neglected system is normal work for us — we start with a full condition survey, fix the backlog, and put the paperwork straight. Ask us to quote on your current maintenance schedule.
BS 5839-1 recommends periodic inspection and servicing at intervals not exceeding six months, so twice a year is the accepted baseline for most premises. The standard also requires that all devices are tested over the course of each twelve-month period, which is why our visits work through a planned rotation rather than spot checks. High-risk or heavily used sites sometimes justify quarterly attendance. Alongside that, the weekly user test remains your responsibility — and we set you up to do it properly.
Call us. Contract customers get a named engineer on site within 24 hours, and many faults can be diagnosed over the phone first so the right parts arrive with the van. In the meantime we’ll tell you what the fault actually means — a single device in fault rarely means the building is unprotected — and what temporary measures, if any, your risk assessment requires. Every fault and fix goes into the logbook, keeping your compliance record unbroken.
Yes. We maintain systems from all the major manufacturers, and taking over mid-life systems is a large part of our work. The first visit is a condition survey: we verify the category, check the panel programme, test a sample of devices, review the logbook and list any non-conformities with honest pricing to close them. From then on you’re on the standard six-monthly regime, with certificates issued by a BAFE SP203-1 registered maintainer.
A named engineer, not a call centre, comes back within 24 hours. Tell us the building and what you’re dealing with, and we’ll scope it properly.