As the third oldest university in the country, University College London (UCL) is home to more than 270 buildings, ranging from student accommodation to teaching, office, laboratories and workshops.
Some 13,000 employees and 50,000 students grace these buildings every year, and so having functioning, robust fire alarm systems in place is critical.
Overseeing fire safety at UCL, is Fire Safety Manager, Simon Cooke, who has been working with Fisk Group for fire alarm system design, installation and maintenance since 1998. Commenting on the reason why we continue to be one of UCL’s longest-standing fire alarm system contractors, Simon says:
“What I like about working with Fisk Group is that they are a family firm. I can go and speak directly to any of the directors who are incredibly helpful and responsive. They’re also solutions-driven and have stayed true to the same core values that they’ve always had. Many of their engineers have worked for them for many years, which is a benefit to us as they keep hold of their core knowledge of us as a client.”
In total, Fisk Group maintains the fire alarm systems for more than 160 buildings across the UCL estate, and as such, we are legally accountable for those fire alarm systems. This involves statutory testing of all fire systems within those buildings, conducting routine maintenance and managing any fixes. In addition, we also maintain UCL’s emergency voice communication systems and aspirating smoke detection systems.
UCL also has a very comprehensive internal process that instructs building occupants on how to report a fault. It is our responsibility to respond to these faults. Usually, we send out an engineer who is familiar with the building and fire alarm system within a couple of hours (depending on the assessed level of risk and complexity of the job).
Speaking about our reliability as a partner, Simon adds:
“Fisk Group will always send engineers who are familiar with our estate and has a good back-office team who coordinate everything. Generally they attend and often seek advice from the fire team if there are issues that out of the ordinary.”
