Monday 14/07/2014: I was informed by the manager of another apartment that the fire alarm had gone off in my
apartment the night before. The same apartment in my previous article.
This was the first time that I could recall the fire alarm going off in this apartment in approximately a decade that I had owned the
apartment and so I sent the following email to my strata manager:
"I was informed this morning that the fire alarm went off in my apartment #4 last night.
In the 10 years I have owned #4 I have never before been advised of the alarm going off in that apartment.
Considering that over the past 6 months the ceiling has twice had holes cut in it and plasterers have been called in and
the ceiling has been painted twice and the builders fitting the new kitchen cupboards had a circular
saw in the apartment, I would not be at all surprised that the smoke detector(s) are full of dust and not performing properly.
May I suggest that you call in the fire experts that service the fire equipment and have the detectors checked out before
all of stage 1 is disturbed again by the ringing of bells.
I would hate body corporate to have to pay for a call out fee if the fire brigade were to attend an alarm."
The response from the strata management was: "The detectors were working perfectly..."
I spoke to my guests on the Wednesday and to the manager who had attended the alarm call on the Thursday to get the facts straight.
The following Monday I
spoke to the Squatters Run fire safety contractor. Although aware of the (sewer back-flow) restoration work earlier in the
year he was unaware that, just in the past week, another hole had been cut into the ceiling, followed by chipping through the
slab above, re-cementing it, plastering and re-painting the ceiling had taken place.
Fortunately the Squatters Run fire safety contractor I spoke to said that he didn't consider it a major issue unless the
alarm wouldn't reset.
However, I'm left assuming that from the strata manager's statement: "The detectors were working perfectly...",
that she had received some expert advice on this matter that she did not pass onto me.
Why wasn't I told all the facts instead of having to waste my time making my own checks into the safety of my guests and everyone
else in Squatters Run?
I thought this article would have wrapped up the issues of July 2014 but then there is the "Squatters Run Newsletter" that the
body corporate mailed to all owners. I received my copy on July 7th and the contents of that Newsletter will constitute
several articles by themselves.