For many building owners and managers, waking watch arrived as an unexpected and significant cost. In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, thousands of residential buildings across the UK were identified as having fire safety deficiencies serious enough to require round-the-clock human monitoring. For those responsible for those buildings, it raised urgent questions – what exactly is waking watch, how long does it need to stay in place, and what does it take to bring it to an end?
This post answers those questions clearly. It also explains where remediation fits in, and how building owners can move from a reactive, costly interim measure to a building that meets the standard required.
What Is Waking Watch?
Waking watch is an interim fire safety measure. It involves trained personnel patrolling a building continuously, around the clock, to detect signs of fire and raise the alarm manually if one breaks out.
It exists as a stopgap. When a building’s passive fire protection or alarm systems are not sufficient to keep occupants safe, waking watch fills the gap while longer-term remediation work is planned and carried out. It is not a permanent solution and was never intended to be one.
The patrols cover the entire building, including communal areas, stairwells, and any areas identified as higher risk. If a fire is detected, the waking watch operative raises the alarm and initiates evacuation. The speed and reliability of that response is the only thing standing between occupants and a fire that the building’s own systems cannot adequately contain.
When Is Waking Watch Required?
Waking watch is typically required when a building has been identified as having fire safety deficiencies that place occupants at risk and where the existing alarm system cannot provide adequate warning in the event of a fire.
The most common trigger is the presence of combustible cladding, but it is not the only one. Serious deficiencies in fire compartmentation, fire stopping, or other elements of passive fire protection can also lead to a waking watch requirement, particularly in higher-risk residential buildings where the consequences of fire spread are most severe.
The requirement is usually imposed following a fire risk assessment that identifies the building as unsafe for its current evacuation strategy. In many cases, buildings that were operating a stay-put policy, where residents are advised to remain in their flats in the event of a fire, are required to move to a simultaneous evacuation strategy instead. Waking watch supports that transition by providing the human resource needed to implement it.
Local fire and rescue services can require waking watch to be put in place immediately if they judge that a building poses an unacceptable risk to life. In those situations, there is no time for planning – it needs to happen fast.
Our waking watch service provides a rapid response for exactly those situations. Our team can mobilise quickly, keep occupants safe, and ensure that UK regulations and legislation are met while longer-term solutions are developed.
The Cost of Waking Watch
Waking watch is expensive. The cost of staffing a building continuously, every hour of every day, adds up quickly – and in larger or more complex buildings, multiple operatives may be required at any one time.
For leaseholders and residents, this cost has in many cases been passed on directly, creating significant financial pressure on people who had no involvement in the decisions that led to the building’s deficiencies in the first place. The government’s introduction of waking watch relief funds and the requirement for developers and freeholders to fund remediation in certain circumstances has provided some relief, but the financial reality of waking watch remains a serious concern for many.
This is one of the strongest reasons to treat waking watch as a temporary measure and move toward remediation as quickly as practically possible. Every week that waking watch remains in place is a week of cost that remediation could eventually eliminate.
The Role of a Common Fire Alarm System
One route to reducing or removing the waking watch requirement, without completing full remediation, is the installation of a common fire alarm system. Where a building does not have a system capable of raising a simultaneous alarm throughout the entire building, installing one can remove the need for human patrols to fulfil that function.
The government’s waking watch relief fund was specifically designed to support the installation of common alarm systems in buildings where waking watch was in place, recognising that an alarm system is a more sustainable and less costly interim solution than ongoing human patrols.
It is worth being clear that a common alarm system does not fix the underlying fire safety deficiencies. It addresses the evacuation strategy problem. The passive fire protection issues that made the building unsafe in the first place still need to be remediated. However, for building owners looking to reduce the immediate financial burden of waking watch while remediation is planned, it is an option worth understanding.
Planning for the End of Waking Watch
Waking watch ends when the building’s fire safety deficiencies have been sufficiently addressed. That means remediation, the actual physical work needed to bring the building up to the required standard.
What that remediation looks like depends entirely on what the building’s fire risk assessment and any subsequent surveys have identified. For some buildings, it primarily involves cladding replacement. For others, it means extensive passive fire protection works such as fire stopping, compartmentation repairs, fire door replacements, and more. In many cases, it is a combination of all of these.
The starting point is always a thorough understanding of what is wrong and what needs to be fixed. A passive fire stopping and compartmentation survey establishes the current condition of the building’s passive fire protection in detail, identifying deficiencies and producing a clear remediation schedule. Without that evidence base, planning and costing remediation accurately is not possible.
From there, the remediation works need to be specified correctly, carried out by competent contractors, and documented thoroughly. Building owners and managers need to be able to demonstrate, with evidence, that the works have been completed to the required standard. That evidence forms part of the building’s safety case and will be scrutinised by the fire service, regulators, and insurers.
Our compliance professional services team supports building owners through this process, providing independent oversight, strategic guidance, and compliance assurance from initial assessment through to project completion. Having that independent expertise in your corner makes a significant difference, both to the quality of the outcome and to the speed at which it is achieved.
Getting the Right Support in Place
Waking watch is a stressful and costly situation for everyone involved. Building owners face significant financial and legal pressure. Residents face uncertainty about their home and their safety. The sooner a clear plan is in place, the better.
That plan starts with honest, independent advice. Not every organisation offering waking watch services is equally well placed to help you understand the route to ending it. At Isoler, our approach is built around giving clients a complete picture – from the immediate response through to the longer-term remediation strategy.
If your building currently has waking watch in place, or if you have concerns about fire safety deficiencies that could lead to a waking watch requirement, get in touch with our team. We will give you a straightforward assessment of where you stand and what your options are.
For a broader understanding of how fire safety compliance works in practice, our post on what happens after a fire risk assessment covers the key steps building owners need to take once deficiencies have been identified.
