The resort accommodation industry needs to respond carefully to the State Government’s review of fire safety arrangements, to ensure they are operationally effective and not bureaucratically driven. 

There are many elements in the proposal which are very sound practice, with a prime focus on safety, awareness and prevention. 

It is incumbent upon us all in the tourism industry, and more especially in the accommodation management sector, to add fire and emergency planning to the prime list of services and responsibilities for which we need to be proactive. 

The requirement to have smoke alarms in each unit is commendable and the current regulations for hardwired smoke alarms are for new premises or those undergoing major renovations. 

The Fire Services discussion paper recommendation is that hardwired fire alarms should be a requirement when a house or unit is sold. Thus in practice, some buildings may not be hard wired for many years, and the cost of doing each unit separately might well be very high, compared with an agreement to undertake a total program at the one time. 

Thus we have some operational and implementation issues which require understanding and cooperation between owners, the body corporate and the resident accommodation managers.  

As the Fire Services Department points out, last year they responded to more than 27,000 false alarms. False alarms tie up resources, put crews and other road users at unnecessary risk and repeated false alarms cause people to ignore alarms in a real emergency. 

As Fire Services points out, the challenge is to reduce the number of false alarms and to maintain community faith in the operation of alarm systems.  

Electrical safety switches have been compulsory in Queensland's new homes and buildings since 1992.  The law now requires that the seller of a residential property must give the buyer written notice of whether an approved safety switch has been installed. If a switch is not installed, the buyer must have an approved safety switch installed within three months of the purchase. 

The recommendation by Fire Services for evacuation plans is another area which requires cooperation. There are several issues in this area. 

As Fire Services indicate, it is vital that everyone has the best possible chance to escape, but some buildings do not have evacuation plans in place to guarantee the highest standards of safety. 

To maintain the highest building fire safety standards, Fire Services makes the point that it is important that restrictions originally applied with the building approval process are maintained. 

They warn that the challenge is to ensure a building occupier uses the building in a manner consistent with the building approval specification. 

The review is looking at the fact that while currently there is no formal review process for the review of building upgrades, there is a challenge ahead to establish a fair and equitable review process for building occupiers and owners directed to upgrade fire safety features.