Can a fire alarm system make lockdown or invacuation announcements?

Which fire alarm do you have?

Fire detection and alarm with sounders or bells. Detectors and call points drive sounders that produce tones. Everyone in the country has learned what the tone means: leave. It cannot say "stay where you are", and a second tone pattern that nobody has been taught is noise. Many panels can trigger a different sounder pattern for a non-fire alert, which is a start, but a pattern is not an instruction.

A Public Address Voice Alarm (PAVA) system, the voice alarm. Loudspeakers instead of, or as well as, sounders. Pre-recorded messages held in monitored storage, an emergency microphone, fault monitoring of every loudspeaker circuit and battery back-up. Designed and maintained to BS 5839-8:2023, the UK code of practice for voice alarm systems. This is the only one of the three that can give different spoken instructions to different areas, and only if someone has recorded the messages, assigned them to zones and made them selectable.

A lockdown or invacuation panel. A separate small system, often added to schools and smaller venues, that gives a distinct alert and, on some models, a small number of fixed messages. It solves the "same alarm for everything" problem. It does not usually address different areas with different instructions, which the Home Office guidance asks larger venues to consider (statutory guidance, 15 April 2026, para 7.49).

If you do not know which you have, the commissioning certificate will say. A voice alarm has design, installation and commissioning certificates that reference BS 5839-8. Sounder systems reference BS 5839-1.

Can the fire alarm sounders give a lockdown alert?

Yes, with conditions, and it is an alert rather than an announcement. The Fire Industry Association (FIA) guidance note on using fire alarm systems for lockdown (Version 2, May 2025) says that since BS 5839-1:2025 a fire alarm's sounders may carry a lockdown alert on a tone different from the evacuation tone without a variation to the standard, provided the lockdown elements are installed to the same standard as the fire alarm and are triggered by their own inputs, so they work independently of the fire detection and evacuation tones. As the note quotes it, the standard asks that where a building has alarms for hazards other than fire, the alarms are "properly coordinated and be distinct from each other", that "the relative priorities need to be assessed", and that the system is arranged so a higher-priority alarm "cannot be prevented or obscured by one of a lower priority" (BS 5839-1:2025, Clause 5 a), as quoted in the FIA note). The note also quotes it as saying that the fire evacuation tone itself should not be used for other purposes (Clause 15.1.12). The note asks premises to agree in advance what happens if a fire alarm operates during a lockdown alert.

Done that way, a lockdown tone on the fire alarm gains the monitoring and battery back-up of the fire system, which is more than a stand-alone air horn or a Wi-Fi alert can offer. What it cannot do is speak. It tells people something has changed; it does not tell them what to do, and it cannot tell one area to stay and another to leave. For a single-space building with trained staff, that may be proportionate. For a venue with several areas, the Home Office guidance asks for instructions that reach people where they are and differ by procedure (para 7.49), and a tone cannot carry them.

Why the fire signal is the wrong trigger for a lockdown

The Home Office guidance says it directly: "where possible, evacuation plans for terrorist attacks should avoid using the normal fire alarm on the basis that people may respond inappropriately to the threat" (para 7.36). Three reasons, each of them checkable in your own building.

1. The learned response. If a lockdown message is preceded by the fire alarm signal, people may evacuate into the area you are trying to move them away from. A distinct attention signal for security scenarios prevents the wrong learned response. The guidance makes the same point from the other direction: "the instructions communicated for an evacuation procedure should be different to the instructions communicated for a lockdown procedure" (para 7.49).
2. The doors. The guidance notes that some entry and exit points "could have provisions to enable them to be unlocked for the purposes of fire evacuations (in some cases, automatically)" (para 7.44). A fire signal can therefore open the doors a lockdown needs shut. Find out which of yours do before the procedure is written.
3. Priority. In most voice alarm systems the fire evacuation message takes priority over everything else, so a lockdown message will be interrupted if a fire is detected during the incident. BS 5839-1:2025, as quoted in the FIA guidance note, recognises that in some buildings another hazard can rank above fire, and asks for the priorities to be assessed rather than assumed (Clause 5 a)). The guidance adds that fire can itself be used as a weapon, so a fire alarm during an attack "should not immediately be assumed to be only a fire" (para 7.35). Either way, the lockdown procedure has to say what happens if the fire alarm operates mid-incident. The guidance asks for exactly that: how the procedures "work together" and how to "avoid any conflicts" (paras 7.28 and 7.36).

What "configured" means in practice

A voice alarm that can deliver a lockdown or invacuation has six things in place. If any one is missing, the procedure stays on paper.

1. Messages. Agreed wording for each procedure, recorded, held in monitored storage. Live announcements depend on a trained, calm person being at the microphone at the worst moment. Pre-recorded messages, held in monitored storage and selectable from the control position, remove that dependency.
2. A distinct attention signal before security messages, so nobody hears the fire tone and leaves.
3. A control position staff can reach in a security incident. The fire microphone position is fixed by the fire strategy. Security scenarios may need selection from a second position. A consideration, not necessarily a fault.
4. Zones that match the procedures. The guidance describes partial and zonal lockdowns, where some doors are locked and others stay open (paras 7.43 and 7.45). A message to the whole building cannot tell the north concourse to stay and the south exit to leave. The zone schedule has to match the plan.
5. Coverage of every area, including back of house. Staff in kitchens, plant rooms and stores are the people who lock the doors. How to warn back-of-house staff during a lockdown.
6. Testing and rehearsal. Procedures that are never rehearsed fail on the day. Out-of-hours testing keeps visitors undisturbed and can sit inside an existing maintenance regime.

Can messages be added to the voice alarm we already have?

Sometimes, and when it is possible it is configuration or a small modification rather than a new system. Whether it is possible depends on three things that can be read from the commissioning documents or checked on site: spare message storage, spare zone capacity, and how the control position selects a message. BS 5839-8:2023 recommends that a change of this kind is treated as a modification, tested, recorded on the as-fitted drawings and covered by a modification certificate (Clause 41.3), with the priority between fire and security messages assessed and recorded rather than assumed (BS 5839-1:2025, Clause 5 a), as quoted in the FIA guidance note).

Where the system can't do it, we'll say so and size the fix: a second control position, loudspeakers in a staff zone, or a separate lockdown alert for a small building. A communication assessment is the visit that gives that answer: whether the existing PA or voice alarm can deliver distinct, zoned evacuation, invacuation and lockdown messages to every area, including back of house, and what to fix if it cannot.

Ask about a communication assessment

Not sure of your tier yet? Use the ten-question checker.

Frequently asked questions

Can we use the fire alarm tone for a lockdown if we train staff to recognise a second pattern?
Staff can be trained; visitors cannot. A tone pattern that means "lockdown" to staff still means "leave" to everyone else in the building, and the guidance asks for lockdown instructions that differ from evacuation instructions (para 7.49). A distinct attention signal followed by a spoken message removes the ambiguity.

Is a lockdown panel enough on its own?
For a small, single-space venue, it may be a proportionate answer: it gives a distinct alert, and the Act asks for what is "reasonably practicable", weighing cost, time and difficulty (paras 7.22 and 7.23). For a venue with several areas, staff zones or more than one exit route, a single building-wide alert cannot tell one area to stay and another to leave. The venue's responsible person makes that judgement, and should record why.

Does adding lockdown messages affect our fire alarm certification?
Adding messages or changing what triggers them is a modification to the voice alarm, which BS 5839-8:2023 recommends is tested and certificated by whoever makes the change (Clause 41.3). In most systems the fire evacuation message keeps priority; whichever way the priorities are set, BS 5839-1:2025, as quoted in the FIA guidance note, asks for them to be assessed and the alarms kept distinct (Clause 5 a)). The fire detection side of the system is unaffected and stays with your fire alarm contractor.

What alert should a venue use for a security incident?
A distinct attention signal, not the fire alarm tone, followed by a spoken message that says what to do. If you're not sure whether your visitors can tell a security message from a fire signal, a short, planned test will answer it.

Where this comes from

Quotations from the Act and the Home Office statutory guidance are Crown copyright, reproduced under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

This page is a plain-English guide, not legal advice. Only the Security Industry Authority can determine compliance.