Batman55 wrote on 14 October 2010 08:31:22 ...
"Paul wrote in message
...
In , Richard J.
writes

There is no legal requirement for the person discovering the fire
personally to dial 999. The requirement is that *someone* must
immediately activate the local warning system (sound the fire alarm for
the station), and that someone must *call for* the assistance of the fire
brigade.

Well, in both cases the "someone" is the person who suspects that there is
a fire, according to the regulations. There's nothing about reporting the
fire to the station manager or other person authorised to call the fire
brigade.

I agree that there could be some ambiguity, but they do say that any
member of staff who suspects a fire must call for the assistance of the
fire brigade (under penalty of being guilty of an offence under section 12
of the Fire Precautions Act 1971).

Would telling someone else to call the fire brigade be enough to fulfil
that obligation? Probably only the courts could decide, but it's worth
bearing in mind that the regulations were introduced because of delays and
confusion in calling the fire brigade to tube-station fires over the
years.
--
Paul Terry

Isn't this the familiar problem of either making regulations so tight that
they don't work in every situation, or leaving them open and expecting
people to use their initiative, only to find they don't have any?

Problem? The problem here seems to be that some people can't read plain
English. I say again, there is nothing in the regs which forces the
person discovering the fire personally to call the fire brigade.
Indeed, that person might not be in a position to do so, but he might
have a radio that can link him to someone who can. The phrase is
"immediate steps must be taken"; it doesn't say by whom.

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)