Disabled Refuge Systems for Commercial Premises
Not everyone in a building can use the stairs during an evacuation. People with mobility impairments, wheelchair users, pregnant women, and anyone who needs assistance to leave the building safely must have somewhere to wait and a reliable way to communicate with the people coordinating the evacuation.
A disabled refuge system, formally known as an Emergency Voice Communication System (EVCS), provides two-way communication between designated refuge areas and a central control point. When someone reaches a refuge area and activates the outstation, building management or the fire and rescue service can speak to them directly, confirm their location, provide reassurance, and coordinate their assisted evacuation.
Current Building Regulations require all new non-domestic buildings with more than one storey to provide refuge areas with communication facilities. The Equality Act 2010 reinforces this by requiring reasonable adjustments to ensure disabled people are not placed at a disadvantage during evacuation. Electrifire designs, installs and maintains disabled refuge systems to BS 5839-9 for commercial premises across London, Kent and the M25 corridor. We install C-Tec SigTEL emergency voice communication systems as our standard platform.
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C-Tec SigTEL EVCS - BS 5839-9 compliant
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Type B hands-free outstations for refuge areas
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Type A fire telephone outstations for fire-fighting lobbies
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Systems scalable from 4 lines to 224 lines
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Interfacing with fire alarm systems, hearing loops and accessible toilet alarms
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Annual servicing and maintenance to BS 5839-9
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A disabled refuge system consists of a master controller, typically located at the fire alarm panel or building reception, and a number of outstations installed at designated refuge points throughout the building. Refuge points are usually located on stairwell landings, in fire-fighting lobbies, or in other protected areas where someone can wait safely during an evacuation.
When a person at a refuge point presses the call button on the outstation, the master controller alerts the operator and establishes two-way communication. The operator can identify which outstation has been activated, speak to the person waiting, confirm that help is on the way, and coordinate the response with fire wardens or the fire and rescue service.
Types of Outstation
Type B outstations (disabled refuge) provide hands-free, two-way communication at the touch of a button. They are designed for use by anyone, including people with no training. They include a built-in microphone and speaker, and can be connected to an optional hearing loop for people with hearing impairments. Type B outstations are the standard choice for refuge areas.
Type A outstations (fire telephone) use a telephone-style handset housed in a red steel cabinet. They are designed for use by trained personnel - fire marshals, fire wardens, and the fire and rescue service - and are typically located at building entrances and fire-fighting lobbies.
Both types connect to the master controller using two-core enhanced fire-rated cable, ensuring the system remains operational even when other building services have been compromised by fire.
Electrifire installs C-Tec SigTEL emergency voice communication systems. The SigTEL platform offers master controllers in 4, 8 and 16-line configurations, with a networking facility that allows systems of up to 224 lines for larger or more complex buildings. This makes it suitable for everything from a small two-storey office to a large multi-building complex.
The system can be linked to the fire alarm panel so that the refuge system only becomes active when the fire alarm is in an alarm condition. This prevents nuisance calls from outstations in schools, public buildings and other premises where unsupervised access to the call button could be a problem.
We also install hearing loop interfaces at refuge outstations where required. BS 8300 recommends that all disabled refuge outstations have facilities to assist people with hearing impairments, and the C-Tec hearing loop module provides this as a straightforward addition to any Type B outstation.
For buildings with existing fire alarm systems maintained by Electrifire, the refuge system installation is coordinated with the fire alarm scope to ensure the interface between the two systems is correctly designed and tested.
BS 5839-9 requires regular servicing of emergency voice communication systems by a competent organisation. A fully itemised report of the system's status should be obtained at least once a year. The responsible person for the building has a legal duty under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to ensure the system remains operational.
Electrifire provides annual servicing of disabled refuge systems, including functional testing of all outstations, master controller checks, battery condition verification, cable integrity testing, and system fault investigation. Refuge system maintenance can be incorporated into your wider fire alarm planned maintenance contract so that everything is covered under a single agreement. See our planned maintenance page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Building Regulations require all new non-domestic buildings with more than one storey to provide refuge areas with emergency voice communication. The Equality Act 2010 also requires reasonable adjustments for disabled people during evacuation. If your building has multiple floors and no refuge communication system, this is likely a compliance gap. Your fire risk assessment should identify whether provision is required.
BS 5839-9 is the British Standard code of practice for the design, installation and maintenance of emergency voice communication systems. It covers disabled refuge systems and fire telephone systems and sets out the requirements for system design, wiring, outstation types, master controller specification, testing and maintenance.
Yes. Refuge systems use two-core enhanced fire-rated cable and can be installed in existing buildings with relatively little disruption. The outstations are compact wall-mounted units, and the master controller is a small wall-mounted panel. Wireless options are not available for refuge systems under BS 5839-9 - the standard requires hardwired communication.
BS 5839-9 requires servicing by a competent organisation on a continuous maintenance contract. A full system inspection should be carried out at least once a year. Functional testing of outstations should also be carried out regularly as part of the building's fire safety management procedures.
Yes. The system can be configured to activate only when the fire alarm is in an alarm condition, preventing nuisance calls. This is particularly useful in schools, public buildings and premises where outstations are accessible to the general public.
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