June 2, 2025 • 13 mins
Have you ever assumed your building's fire alarm automatically calls emergency services? You might be dangerously wrong.
What started as a routine cleaning of a dusty server cabinet quickly escalated into a full building evacuation and a shocking discovery about fire safety systems. After accidentally triggering our building's alarm with dust, our 52-unit apartment block found itself standing outside for nearly 30 minutes, waiting for firefighters who were never actually notified. The sophisticated fire panel in our foyer, which could pinpoint exactly where the alarm was triggered, wasn't connected to emergency services at all.
This eye-opening experience revealed a critical gap in knowledge that many property owners and residents share. Fire safety compliance is among the top three concerns for property buyers, alongside balcony issues and concrete cancer. The financial implications are substantial – fire detection systems, sprinklers, fire doors, hydrant systems, and emergency lighting can cost between $50,000-$100,000. But these investments become priceless during an actual emergency.
The most important lesson? Never assume your building's alarm will automatically contact emergency services. Always call triple zero directly, regardless of how advanced your building's systems appear. And if you're a building manager or resident, take the time to understand your building's fire safety systems, emergency procedures, and muster points. This knowledge doesn't just provide peace of mind – it could save lives when minutes matter most. Take a moment today to verify your building's emergency protocols, and remember to appreciate the dedicated emergency services personnel who respond to our worst moments with professionalism and care.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, that's a little bit embarrassing.
Yesterday, mark Novak and theDYFI department have we got some
lessons to teach you today?
Stay tuned, guys.
I'm the ringleader, so what youknow.
(00:29):
I find this a little bit totalk about, a little bit
difficult to talk about.
Guys and girls.
Billy, I'm sorry, Everyone, I'msorry.
Yesterday I decided to blow outthe server cabinet in our
office and 52 units had toevacuate our unit block and I
(00:55):
apologise to everyone threetimes each and I'm really sorry,
but I'm also a bit worriedabout what I learnt.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, it's um, but I'm also a bit worried about
what I learnt.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, it was a late night, late night in the office.
It was a late one.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
It was a late one so Billy, what do you know about
fire safety?
Well, fire safety, welcome we,can we.
Fire safety is massive.
It's probably, when I'm talkingto buyers, it's probably, you
know, one of three big fearsthey have the.
The number one fear isbalconies, balcony upgrades in
(01:36):
concrete cancer.
Number two comes up as as fireupgrades because they are
expensive, but that's soimportant.
So let's, let's step peoplethrough 60 seconds.
What happened last night?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
so I'm saying you, I, I decide to the server cabinet.
For five years, six years,seven years has been never had a
good clean.
So I decided to blow it out,vacuum it out, and there's dust
everywhere, everywhere.
Dust, dust, dust and the firealarm goes off.
And when our with anyone whodoesn't know we're in a building
(02:15):
of 52 units, it's a six, sevenstory building.
Everyone's evacuated on thestreet.
So I'm like you're an idiot,mark.
And the second thing'm thinkingwhile it's all the sirens going
off, this thing's loud.
The second thing I'm thinkingis how do I do that with dust?
So first of all, if you're inlike an office block or a big
(02:37):
building, you know they're notonly sensitive towards fire,
they are sensitive towards dust,these things.
So I dusted up the server room.
The alarm went off, I'm outsideand we're waiting for the fire
department yeah, but the theshocking thing here is what?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
what happened when the fire department turned up?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
so I'm so, I'm so.
So I'm apologizing to everyonein the building going.
Look, I'm really sorry, youknow that was me.
I was dusting the server cabin.
I'm really sorry, that was me.
And there's this control box.
I'm standing at the control boxand it's warning us of all
these blights are going off and,um, I've had this happen before
(03:24):
in the building because we'vebeen in the building for seven
years.
So there's a couple of rules.
So you'd never reset the alarmwithout or isolate the alarm if
you, if you haven't, actually,if the fire department actually
hasn't been out and checked thearea, the zone that's in danger.
So you know, you just don'tturn the alarm off unless you're
(03:46):
thousand percent that it'sactually not a fire.
Number one, yeah.
So we're going.
I know it's not a fire becauseit says, it says the zone, it
says real estate on the paneland I know it's us that set it
off.
Could have been someone else.
So check, check, check.
So and I know it was the dustand I know exactly when I
triggered the event.
(04:07):
But we're waiting outside andeveryone's waiting outside, you
know, because it's really reallynoisy and this guy will this
guy like we're there for like 10minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes
, 25 minutes, and the firedepartment, god bless, and they
do a beautiful job, good guys.
(04:29):
Word out to the fire is, by theway, um, the fire department,
nothing.
So we ring, we're in there onlyabout 100 meters up, 200 meters
up the road.
So we ring them.
And then, while while we'reringing them, um, I'm trying to
get into the fire panel and it'slocked.
And so we ring them and theyanswer Lovely guys.
(04:50):
And they're like is there a keyon top of the fire panel?
And we're like, oh, look on topof the fire panel.
No, he's like well, just, areyou guys coming?
He's like nope, we're like what, what, what, what, what do you
mean?
He goes, we got, but didn't youget like an alarm code trigger
(05:10):
like, if they go, yeah, couldhave gone to another fire
station and they could be on theway.
You know, if we're, if we'rebusier at the time, um, they'll,
they'll send it to another firestation.
We're like, wow, okay, um, it'sbeen 30 minutes and we're a
pretty big building and they'vecome out, like in seven years,
(05:31):
probably about three or fourtimes super quick, yeah and he
goes and he goes mate, just turnit off.
Like yeah, but how do we turnoff?
He goes get the buildingmanager.
I get up and morris is thebuilding manager, like I'm with
the building manager, morris,have you got a key to the fire
control box?
And he's trying different keys,trying different keys, lovely
guy.
Nah, so I sort of I work my wayinto the firebox.
(05:56):
I won't say what I did, but Iopen the firebox, silence the
screecher and Everyone in thebuilding's like oh, cool, okay,
all done.
And then Morris and I are stillstanding there and we're reading
the panel and it says oh, youknow, your fans are on in your
building so you have to resetyour fans in your building
because there's all theseextraction fans that turn on.
(06:18):
A lot of stuff happens.
So we talked to the fire guy.
I've still got him on the phone.
He goes look, we'll just comedown.
You know we'll come now.
So they come down to the um tosay so they walk in, lovely guys
.
And he's like, and I'm likedude, how do you turn these fans
off?
You know, I'm chat gpting it.
And he's like, presses hisbutton for like one second and
(06:41):
it's all reset perfectly thepanel.
And I was like mate, thank youso much, you know, uh, you know,
do I have to pay you anything?
There was no, fine, thank god.
Um, but what struck me?
What struck me?
And then we said to the likearen't you guys connected?
They said, no, well, like, isthat the law?
It's like, yep, some panels are, in a certain period, are
(07:04):
connected to us, some panels arenot connected to us.
It could have gone out to yourfire guys.
You know your, your third partyfire guys.
I think they're pro fire, orwhatever the name.
Different name, different names.
There were celtic fire, I'm notsure.
Anyway, that's the story.
So the moral of the story and Iwant everyone to know this is
you just, if you, if there is afire, you just don't rely on
(07:27):
your panel in your building oryour alarm going off in your
building and don't assume thatit's gone to the fire department
.
Ring, ring, ring in the eventof danger on the phone.
I know it's obvious, but Icould imagine someone burning
out their kitchen and all of usstanding downstairs saying, yeah
, yeah, they'll be here soonyeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And like the, I was just looking this morning about
like what are the 10 biggestfire upgrades that are coming
and?
And the compliance is everchanging but it's ramping up
more and more.
Um, you've got the firedetection and alarm systems.
Like that is the the firepanels.
If you're ever wondering whatthey actually look like, they
(08:11):
are like the glass box in thefoyer.
Um, yeah, often got the glasspanel at the front and tells you
pretty much everything going onin the building.
It can pinpoint where exactlysomething's been triggered yes,
it's genius.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
It saves rather than the fire is having to go through
every unit.
They know straight away whereit is.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, another thing we're seeing is and this is an
expensive one is the sprinklersystems.
So in the common areas you'llfind there's, you know,
emergency sprinklers and likethey'll dampen common areas.
So you know again they can turnon.
Fire doors seem so logical, butthe front door of most
(08:51):
apartment buildings they're notjust any front door, they're
built to fire code.
they're really expensive andthey compartmentalize the fire
with from oxygen so they slowdown the spread from from
compartment to compartment inthe building another one as well
I'm finding is um hydrantsystems and they're located
(09:14):
generally at the front of thebuilding if they're not already
connected to another mains point.
So if you're walking down thestreet and you see, you know a
fire hydrant and it's sort ofpositioned towards a particular
building and it looked like it'ssort of fairly new and it's
popped up out of nowhere.
That's why, um, but some ofthese things like 50 hundred
grand in cost, um emergency andexit lighting, um, you know lots
(09:40):
of signage and um, yeah, that'sjust an example of some of the
stuff you're going to find inyour building.
If it's not already done, youknow you can factor it in as an
expense, um, and if it's alreadyin there, you know someone
previously has kind of paid forthat as a part of a special levy
or a strata levy.
So there's value in it.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
I look and it's all like you roll your eyes back
until you don't, um, and I think, make yourself aware, or at
least make sure there's someonein your strata building that
that has an awareness.
So after this event happened,um, the building manager and I
looked at each other because I'mtheir business hours, you know,
(10:22):
six days a week, 12 hours a day.
He's there at night and we bothlooked at each other and said
we really got to know our shit.
So we're actually getting outour fire guys to train us on.
You know how that buildingworks in terms of fire.
So we know, look, we're notgoing to be putting out fires,
but even if you know musterstations, um, you know where
(10:45):
everyone goes in the event of afire identifying, you know how
everything works and stuff likethat.
But even just the basicknowledge that I did not know
that the building is connectedor not connected and relies on a
call to the fire department,you just assume that as soon as
(11:09):
you, it's a bigger building andyou hear a trigger and there's a
beautiful big fire panel thatof course they're going to get
called.
No, call them.
You want to know the funniestbit what's up?
It's embarrassing.
This guy walks from across theroad and there's another
building of 70 across the roadthat's been there for six months
, 12 months.
He comes across and go to callthe fire department.
(11:34):
We're like no, no, it comes,you know automatically when it
rings, you know.
And he's like yeah, no, no, youguys aren't connected.
And then the two old guys,these guys like your age, billy,
and then the two old guys likemorris is probably 60 and
(11:55):
there's me, 50, 48.
When we look at it with morrisand I look at each other, we go.
Morris goes, mate, we've beenhere for 10 years.
You know I'm the buildingmanager, you know we've always
we've had the fire.
He's out a couple of time, ofcourse, this is connected.
And he goes.
The young guy goes yeah, no, uh,you know, I was someone I'll
(12:16):
see, the other I'll see a couplemonths ago and someone was
saying the building's notconnected and we're like, nah,
mate, just it's all.
Like if we could have said whatwe thought it was thought, it
would have been like, hey, whatdo you know he's talking about?
Just just get back across, forwe got this sorted, mate.
We got this sorted.
He was bloody right.
He was bloody right and it'slaw and it's look.
(12:38):
It's a compliant building.
It gets checked every likethree months or six months.
We have the fire, the fire guys, all over our building.
So it's a compliant building.
But some don't assume yourbuilding's connected to triple o
.
You got a ring yeah, yeah, goodpractice run last night, but
there's room for improvement,it's good to know, uh, and
(13:01):
before I go, I just want to say,um, these guys in emergency
services, respect to you, like Ifeel like you know police, fire
um ambulance, you know you it'syou're only there in trauma
situations and and it's nicejust to be thankful for these
guys and what they do and, um,and give them a shout out thank
(13:24):
you, yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Their knowledge is power.
There you go massive thanksbilly bob everyone have a great
day.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
See you later, get down low and go, go, go bye.
All right, that's a little bit embarrassing.
Yesterday, mark Novak and theDYFI department have we got some
lessons to teach you today?
Stay tuned, guys.
I'm the ringleader, so what youknow.
(00:29):
I find this a little bit totalk about, a little bit
difficult to talk about.
Guys and girls.
Billy, I'm sorry, Everyone, I'msorry.
Yesterday I decided to blow outthe server cabinet in our
office and 52 units had toevacuate our unit block and I
(00:55):
apologise to everyone threetimes each and I'm really sorry,
but I'm also a bit worriedabout what I learnt.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, it's um, but I'm also a bit worried about
what I learnt.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, it was a late night, late night in the office.
It was a late one.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
It was a late one so Billy, what do you know about
fire safety?
Well, fire safety, welcome we,can we.
Fire safety is massive.
It's probably, when I'm talkingto buyers, it's probably, you
know, one of three big fearsthey have the.
The number one fear isbalconies, balcony upgrades in
(01:36):
concrete cancer.
Number two comes up as as fireupgrades because they are
expensive, but that's soimportant.
So let's, let's step peoplethrough 60 seconds.
What happened last night?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
so I'm saying you, I, I decide to the server cabinet.
For five years, six years,seven years has been never had a
good clean.
So I decided to blow it out,vacuum it out, and there's dust
everywhere, everywhere.
Dust, dust, dust and the firealarm goes off.
And when our with anyone whodoesn't know we're in a building
(02:15):
of 52 units, it's a six, sevenstory building.
Everyone's evacuated on thestreet.
So I'm like you're an idiot,mark.
And the second thing'm thinkingwhile it's all the sirens going
off, this thing's loud.
The second thing I'm thinkingis how do I do that with dust?
So first of all, if you're inlike an office block or a big
(02:37):
building, you know they're notonly sensitive towards fire,
they are sensitive towards dust,these things.
So I dusted up the server room.
The alarm went off, I'm outsideand we're waiting for the fire
department yeah, but the theshocking thing here is what?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
what happened when the fire department turned up?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
so I'm so, I'm so.
So I'm apologizing to everyonein the building going.
Look, I'm really sorry, youknow that was me.
I was dusting the server cabin.
I'm really sorry, that was me.
And there's this control box.
I'm standing at the control boxand it's warning us of all
these blights are going off and,um, I've had this happen before
(03:24):
in the building because we'vebeen in the building for seven
years.
So there's a couple of rules.
So you'd never reset the alarmwithout or isolate the alarm if
you, if you haven't, actually,if the fire department actually
hasn't been out and checked thearea, the zone that's in danger.
So you know, you just don'tturn the alarm off unless you're
(03:46):
thousand percent that it'sactually not a fire.
Number one, yeah.
So we're going.
I know it's not a fire becauseit says, it says the zone, it
says real estate on the paneland I know it's us that set it
off.
Could have been someone else.
So check, check, check.
So and I know it was the dustand I know exactly when I
triggered the event.
(04:07):
But we're waiting outside andeveryone's waiting outside, you
know, because it's really reallynoisy and this guy will this
guy like we're there for like 10minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes
, 25 minutes, and the firedepartment, god bless, and they
do a beautiful job, good guys.
(04:29):
Word out to the fire is, by theway, um, the fire department,
nothing.
So we ring, we're in there onlyabout 100 meters up, 200 meters
up the road.
So we ring them.
And then, while while we'reringing them, um, I'm trying to
get into the fire panel and it'slocked.
And so we ring them and theyanswer Lovely guys.
(04:50):
And they're like is there a keyon top of the fire panel?
And we're like, oh, look on topof the fire panel.
No, he's like well, just, areyou guys coming?
He's like nope, we're like what, what, what, what, what do you
mean?
He goes, we got, but didn't youget like an alarm code trigger
(05:10):
like, if they go, yeah, couldhave gone to another fire
station and they could be on theway.
You know, if we're, if we'rebusier at the time, um, they'll,
they'll send it to another firestation.
We're like, wow, okay, um, it'sbeen 30 minutes and we're a
pretty big building and they'vecome out, like in seven years,
(05:31):
probably about three or fourtimes super quick, yeah and he
goes and he goes mate, just turnit off.
Like yeah, but how do we turnoff?
He goes get the buildingmanager.
I get up and morris is thebuilding manager, like I'm with
the building manager, morris,have you got a key to the fire
control box?
And he's trying different keys,trying different keys, lovely
guy.
Nah, so I sort of I work my wayinto the firebox.
(05:56):
I won't say what I did, but Iopen the firebox, silence the
screecher and Everyone in thebuilding's like oh, cool, okay,
all done.
And then Morris and I are stillstanding there and we're reading
the panel and it says oh, youknow, your fans are on in your
building so you have to resetyour fans in your building
because there's all theseextraction fans that turn on.
(06:18):
A lot of stuff happens.
So we talked to the fire guy.
I've still got him on the phone.
He goes look, we'll just comedown.
You know we'll come now.
So they come down to the um tosay so they walk in, lovely guys
.
And he's like, and I'm likedude, how do you turn these fans
off?
You know, I'm chat gpting it.
And he's like, presses hisbutton for like one second and
(06:41):
it's all reset perfectly thepanel.
And I was like mate, thank youso much, you know, uh, you know,
do I have to pay you anything?
There was no, fine, thank god.
Um, but what struck me?
What struck me?
And then we said to the likearen't you guys connected?
They said, no, well, like, isthat the law?
It's like, yep, some panels are, in a certain period, are
(07:04):
connected to us, some panels arenot connected to us.
It could have gone out to yourfire guys.
You know your, your third partyfire guys.
I think they're pro fire, orwhatever the name.
Different name, different names.
There were celtic fire, I'm notsure.
Anyway, that's the story.
So the moral of the story and Iwant everyone to know this is
you just, if you, if there is afire, you just don't rely on
(07:27):
your panel in your building oryour alarm going off in your
building and don't assume thatit's gone to the fire department
.
Ring, ring, ring in the eventof danger on the phone.
I know it's obvious, but Icould imagine someone burning
out their kitchen and all of usstanding downstairs saying, yeah
, yeah, they'll be here soonyeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And like the, I was just looking this morning about
like what are the 10 biggestfire upgrades that are coming
and?
And the compliance is everchanging but it's ramping up
more and more.
Um, you've got the firedetection and alarm systems.
Like that is the the firepanels.
If you're ever wondering whatthey actually look like, they
(08:11):
are like the glass box in thefoyer.
Um, yeah, often got the glasspanel at the front and tells you
pretty much everything going onin the building.
It can pinpoint where exactlysomething's been triggered yes,
it's genius.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
It saves rather than the fire is having to go through
every unit.
They know straight away whereit is.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, another thing we're seeing is and this is an
expensive one is the sprinklersystems.
So in the common areas you'llfind there's, you know,
emergency sprinklers and likethey'll dampen common areas.
So you know again they can turnon.
Fire doors seem so logical, butthe front door of most
(08:51):
apartment buildings they're notjust any front door, they're
built to fire code.
they're really expensive andthey compartmentalize the fire
with from oxygen so they slowdown the spread from from
compartment to compartment inthe building another one as well
I'm finding is um hydrantsystems and they're located
(09:14):
generally at the front of thebuilding if they're not already
connected to another mains point.
So if you're walking down thestreet and you see, you know a
fire hydrant and it's sort ofpositioned towards a particular
building and it looked like it'ssort of fairly new and it's
popped up out of nowhere.
That's why, um, but some ofthese things like 50 hundred
grand in cost, um emergency andexit lighting, um, you know lots
(09:40):
of signage and um, yeah, that'sjust an example of some of the
stuff you're going to find inyour building.
If it's not already done, youknow you can factor it in as an
expense, um, and if it's alreadyin there, you know someone
previously has kind of paid forthat as a part of a special levy
or a strata levy.
So there's value in it.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
I look and it's all like you roll your eyes back
until you don't, um, and I think, make yourself aware, or at
least make sure there's someonein your strata building that
that has an awareness.
So after this event happened,um, the building manager and I
looked at each other because I'mtheir business hours, you know,
(10:22):
six days a week, 12 hours a day.
He's there at night and we bothlooked at each other and said
we really got to know our shit.
So we're actually getting outour fire guys to train us on.
You know how that buildingworks in terms of fire.
So we know, look, we're notgoing to be putting out fires,
but even if you know musterstations, um, you know where
(10:45):
everyone goes in the event of afire identifying, you know how
everything works and stuff likethat.
But even just the basicknowledge that I did not know
that the building is connectedor not connected and relies on a
call to the fire department,you just assume that as soon as
(11:09):
you, it's a bigger building andyou hear a trigger and there's a
beautiful big fire panel thatof course they're going to get
called.
No, call them.
You want to know the funniestbit what's up?
It's embarrassing.
This guy walks from across theroad and there's another
building of 70 across the roadthat's been there for six months
, 12 months.
He comes across and go to callthe fire department.
(11:34):
We're like no, no, it comes,you know automatically when it
rings, you know.
And he's like yeah, no, no, youguys aren't connected.
And then the two old guys,these guys like your age, billy,
and then the two old guys likemorris is probably 60 and
(11:55):
there's me, 50, 48.
When we look at it with morrisand I look at each other, we go.
Morris goes, mate, we've beenhere for 10 years.
You know I'm the buildingmanager, you know we've always
we've had the fire.
He's out a couple of time, ofcourse, this is connected.
And he goes.
The young guy goes yeah, no, uh,you know, I was someone I'll
(12:16):
see, the other I'll see a couplemonths ago and someone was
saying the building's notconnected and we're like, nah,
mate, just it's all.
Like if we could have said whatwe thought it was thought, it
would have been like, hey, whatdo you know he's talking about?
Just just get back across, forwe got this sorted, mate.
We got this sorted.
He was bloody right.
He was bloody right and it'slaw and it's look.
(12:38):
It's a compliant building.
It gets checked every likethree months or six months.
We have the fire, the fire guys, all over our building.
So it's a compliant building.
But some don't assume yourbuilding's connected to triple o
.
You got a ring yeah, yeah, goodpractice run last night, but
there's room for improvement,it's good to know, uh, and
(13:01):
before I go, I just want to say,um, these guys in emergency
services, respect to you, like Ifeel like you know police, fire
um ambulance, you know you it'syou're only there in trauma
situations and and it's nicejust to be thankful for these
guys and what they do and, um,and give them a shout out thank
(13:24):
you, yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Their knowledge is power.
There you go massive thanksbilly bob everyone have a great
day.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
See you later, get down low and go, go, go bye.
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