For housing associations, managing agents, and Responsible Persons navigating waking watch obligations, the pressure to move quickly toward a common alarm system has never been clearer. Government funding is available. Regulatory expectations are firm. And the case for getting the technology decision right, not just fast, has never been stronger.
What Is the Interim Measures Alarm Fund?
The Interim Measures Alarm Fund (IMAF) is a UK Government initiative designed to fund the installation of common fire alarm systems in residential buildings currently reliant on waking watch arrangements. Administered by Homes England, the fund meets the reasonable capital costs of installing fire detection and alarm systems that meet the requirements of BS 5839-1 Category L5 standards, including equipment, installation labour, commissioning, and witness testing.
The IMAF is explicitly structured to incentivise fire alarm installation over the continuation of waking watch. The Government’s position is clear: waking watch is an immediate, short-term measure which is costly, operationally intensive, and not a sustainable final fire safety solution. The expectation is that Responsible Persons move towards a common fire alarm system as quickly as feasibly possible with the fund being made available to remove these financial barriers.
Importantly, the IMAF also covers the reasonable costs of fire systems capable of being modified to evacuation alert systems as outlined in BS 8629, the standard for evacuation alert systems used by Fire and Rescue Services. This is a forward-looking provision enabling a building to eventually reintroduce a stay-put strategy. It also makes total sense to install a fire system that can be easily converted rather than completely removed, thus drastically reducing any additional costs associated with a new evacuation alert system.
Why Waking Watch Must Be Temporary
Referring to the NFCC Simultaneous Evacuation Guidance, now in its fourth edition, which is unambiguous on this point considering that waking watch is an immediate solution to an immediate problem. Responsible Persons are required to produce a transition plan within one month of implementation of a waking watch, and more importantly to have a common fire alarm in place within six months in all but the most exceptional of circumstances.
The financial reality reinforces that waking watch costs in high-rise residential buildings have historically run into tens of thousands of pounds per month, with the burden typically falling on leaseholders. The IMAF directly addresses this by removing the cost barrier that has in many cases caused delays in moving to a more effective, compliant and sustainable solution.
Beyond the actual cost, a fire alarm simply provides greater reliability with the fire detection element identifying a fire condition faster, more consistently and without the variability inherent in human patrol-based methods. When lives are at risk, the quality and dependability of the early detection and warning infrastructure matter enormously.
The NFCC Direction: Common Alarms Over Human Presence
The NFCC guidance emphasises that an appropriate common fire detection and alarm system will generally provide more certainty that a fire will be detected and residents warned at the earliest opportunity. The guidance supports the use of wireless technology as part of this solution, particularly in buildings where the disruption and complexity of a fully wired installation would slow down deployment.
For buildings where cladding or compartmentation defects have triggered a change in the evacuation strategy, the speed of installation and commissioning matters as these residents are living with an increased risk of fire. Every week of delay in providing the fire system ultimately has a huge financial cost both operationally and in terms of the wellbeing of the resident.
Using the award-winning Sygno-fi by Eurotech wireless fire system provides a significant advantage when looking to rapidly deploy a compliant fire detection and alarm system with minimal disruption to occupants. With the added advantage of minimal disruption in the conversion to a fully compliant BS 8629 system, this makes Sygno-fi by Eurotech the best range currently available on the market.
Why Project Speed Matters and Why Design Does Too
When time is the primary constraint, the temptation is to reach for the quickest available wireless solution. However, a fire system that is fast to deploy but difficult to survey, is prone to interference, or hard to physically maintain, will create problems further down the line.
Not all wireless fire systems are engineered or operate in the same way; one consideration is that design matters. A fire system installed on a dedicated wireless infrastructure with purpose-designed signal routing, along with redundant communication paths and interference management will behave differently over time to one based on a simpler peer-to-peer cabled option. This distinction becomes especially important in large or complex residential buildings where signal integrity, device capacity and long-term maintainability are genuine operational considerations.
Infrastructure-based wireless fire systems from Eurotech are designed from the ground up to support the larger type installations. These are more predictable performance wise and compliant to the aforementioned standards and guidelines. The investment in accredited system design pays dividends across every stage of a project from the initial survey right through to the preventative planned maintenance.
Sygno-fi: Supporting Compliance from Survey to Maintenance
Sygno-fi by Eurotech is an infrastructure-based open protocol wireless fire alarm platform that is EN54-25 certified. It has been designed specifically to make compliance easier at every stage of a project and that philosophy shapes everything from its survey tools to its long-term battery performance providing prolonged coverage, reliability and basic reassurance.
At the site survey stage, utilising dedicated test equipment makes the wireless feasibility assessments faster and more reliable, reducing any uncertainty before a single device is installed. The open protocol route means specifiers are not locked into a single panel manufacture thus giving the project teams the flexibility to align with any existing infrastructure where appropriate.
During the installation, the reduced cabling requirements means a faster deployment and with less overall disruption to the residents. This is a material benefit in occupied residential buildings where access management is a genuine challenge. With the hybrid capability of supporting both wired and wireless devices on the same loop, Sygno-fi gives contractors the flexibility to adapt to the specific constraints of each building.
Moving onto the commissioning stage, Sygno-fi’s Bluetooth connectivity enables faster, more intuitive programming directly from a laptop, reducing time on-site and supporting a quicker handover. Real-time signal strength and battery visibility at the fire system control panel provides the engineers with a clear insight into the system’s performance from day one.
For ongoing maintenance this same visibility becomes operationally significant with the availability of real-time device battery status, which in turn allows for proactive planned maintenance rather than reactive call-outs. With up to ten years of battery life on selected Sygno-fi devices, the intervals between interventions are longer and the predictability of servicing is higher.
Over the longer term, the infrastructure-based option of Sygno-fi means the fire system can be expanded as requirements change, supports straightforward record-keeping and provides the reliability that Responsible Persons need to demonstrate ongoing compliance with confidence.
Why This Matters to Responsible Persons
The Responsible Person’s commitments do not simply end with the installation, under the Fire Safety Order ongoing maintenance, testing, and record-keeping obligations remain in place for as long as interim measures are in force. Installing Sygno-fi provides straightforward servicing along with clear visibility of device health and battery status, ultimately reducing the operational burden of meeting these obligations.
It also matters at the specification stage where a building’s common fire alarm system can be easily modified to a BS 8629 fully compliant evacuation alert system. With Sygno-fi proposed at the early specification stage, the conversation from a fire alarm system to an evacuation alert system with minimal disruption can be achieved. Specifying Sygno-fi as an infrastructure-based open protocol fire system will allow for sufficient device capacity and makes that pathway significantly easier to navigate in the end.
The choice of wireless fire alarm system is not simply a procurement decision; it is a compliance infrastructure decision. Getting that decision right reduces risk across the entire lifecycle of the building’s fire safety arrangements, from the immediate waking watch replacement fire system through to the long-term evacuation alert system. Eurotech’s Sygno-fi system provides a compliant and dependable solution aligned with these requirements.
Practical Next Steps
If your building is currently operating a waking watch, or you are advising a client who is, the immediate priority is to understand your IMAF eligibility and begin the process of specifying a fully compliant common system with the capabilities of long-term modification.
The fund is accessible to Responsible Persons and authorised representatives in England for residential buildings currently reliant on waking watch or simultaneous evacuation via FRS intervention.
A fire risk assessment or FRAEW identifying the need for an interim alarm is required as part of the application.
When specifying the alarm system, consider Eurotech Sygno-fi not just for the installation cost and speed, but the long-term compliance implications of the system chosen. Contact our specialist team to find out more about infrastructure-based Sygno-fi wireless options and the difference they can make across the full project lifecycle.
Eurotech Fire Systems is a specialist manufacturer of wireless fire detection and alarm systems, including the Sygno-fi by Eurotech range. To discuss your project requirements or find out more about how Sygno-fi supports IMAF-compliant installations**, contact our team at enquiry@eurotechfire.com or call +44 (0) 203 141 0999.
** The IMAF approved installation contractors listing via Homes England enables the specifier to choose with confidence an installer to undertake fire / evacuation alert system projects. Alphatrack Systems who are a Eurotech trusted partner are fully approved and would be happy to support any IMAF-compliant installations. Contact their in house-team at IMAF@alphatracksystems.co.uk or call +44 (0) 1279 630 565.
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