24/7 reactive callout and fault repair
A fire alarm fault does not wait for office hours. The group’s emergency line is answered around the clock, every day of the year, by people who can actually dispatch an engineer.
Built on an emergency operation that already runs all night
SB Group runs The Emergency Electricians, a 24/7 callout operation that has been answering Greater Manchester’s electrical emergencies for years. Praetor’s out-of-hours cover runs on the same infrastructure: a staffed line, engineers on rota, vans stocked for the common failures.
Typical callouts: a panel in fault at 2am, sounders that will not silence, a false alarm cycle that is emptying a hotel every night, detector heads damaged by contractors, or a system knocked out by water ingress. The first job is always to make the building safe and the system stable; permanent repairs follow in daylight if parts are needed.
Contract clients get priority response and preferential rates, and every callout is written up in the portal: cause, action taken, and anything the incident says about the system’s condition.
What's included
- Phone answered 24/7, 365 days a year, by the group’s own operation
- Priority response for maintenance contract clients
- Panel faults, sounder faults and false alarm cycles diagnosed at circuit level
- Temporary cover measures agreed on the spot where protection is reduced
- Full incident write-up in your client portal
- Permanent repairs quoted and completed promptly
Every visit ends with certificates issued and logbook entries made before the engineer leaves site.
My fire alarm keeps going off for no reason. What should I do?
Do not silence it and hope. Repeated false alarms have a cause, commonly dust, steam, a failing head or a wiring fault, and a competent engineer can find it.
False alarm cycles train staff to ignore the system, which is the most dangerous state a building can be in. We diagnose the source, fix or re-site the offending device, and review detector types where the environment is the real culprit.
Can I turn off a faulty fire alarm overnight?
Not without putting interim measures in place. The building must keep an equivalent level of protection while the system is degraded.
Depending on the premises that can mean isolating one zone rather than the panel, a temporary detection unit, or in sleeping-risk premises a waking watch. Our engineer agrees the interim measure with you and records it, which is what an inspector will ask to see.
How fast can you get to site?
Contract clients get priority dispatch; across Greater Manchester most emergency attendances happen within hours, not days.
Response time depends on where you are and what is already on the board, so we do not print a number we cannot always honour. What we do promise: the phone is answered by a person, and you will know the ETA before the call ends.
Better bundled: this service costs less and works harder inside a planned maintenance contract covering alarm, lighting, extinguishers and risk assessment together.
Get a contract priceEmergency callout questions
How quickly do you attend an emergency callout?
The phone is answered by a person at any hour, not voicemail. Attendance depends on the site and the contract you hold; contracted clients get a priority response with the target written into the contract rather than implied. We give you an honest ETA on the call rather than a marketing figure.
What counts as a fire alarm emergency?
A system in fault or out of service, repeated unwanted alarms driving evacuation fatigue, a panel that cannot be reset, a sounder or detector fault on a life-safety circuit, or damage after a flood, break-in or building works. If detection is compromised, it is an emergency.
What should we do if the alarm cannot be reset?
Call us and keep the building under a documented fire watch until the system is restored. Do not silence and ignore a panel in fault: with detection out of service the fire risk assessment assumptions no longer hold, and that is the point at which insurers ask questions.
Do you cover systems you did not install?
Yes. We attend other contractors systems, and we carry common spares for the panel ranges we see most across Greater Manchester. Where a part has to be ordered we make the system safe and tell you exactly what is on order and when it lands.
Would rather we called you?
Leave a number and a name. An engineer calls you back the same working day, and you can have the whole conversation in five minutes.