The refuge call point isn't working.
It seems like the refuge or fire telephone looks fine until someone presses it. These are the points people rely on when they can't use the stairs, so it's right to treat this as urgent.
What is usually wrong
An emergency voice communication system (EVCS) connects refuge call points, fire telephones and sometimes toilet alarms to a master panel. Common faults in the jobs behind this page: a break in the network cable that takes out every outstation beyond it, a failed expander serving several lines, damaged or missing front plates, and outstations that alert locally but never reach the panel.
What you can safely check
- Test it the way it would be used: press the call point and confirm the master panel rings and you can talk both ways.
- Note every outstation that fails, not just the first. Several in a row point to the cable, not the outstations.
- Check for physical damage to faceplates and handsets.
When to call a technician
The same day, and tell whoever manages the fire strategy: a refuge that can't call out changes how people are evacuated.
Questions for whoever comes
- Is it the outstation, the cable or the panel?
- Which other outstations are on the same line?
- When were all the outstations last tested from end to end?
Or call 01273 034 630.