Rescue service equipment means equipment including equipment for the detection of other risk of accident as well as alarm and warning equipment (Act on Rescue Service Equipment 10/2007). Examples of these include evacuation alert and safety announcement systems. These are commonly referred to as voice evacuation or voice alarm systems.
Tukes only supervises voice evacuation systems that must be installed because they are required by legislation or the authorities. Tukes does not supervise equipment installed on a voluntary basis. Voice alarm systems within the scope of the Act on Rescue Service Equipment do not include systems such as the public address systems used in schools. Although used in emergencies to transmit messages, the television is not regarded as voice evacuation equipment under the Act either.
The Act (10/2007) does not set any binding obligations to use a specific standard in the verification of the conformity of voice evacuation equipment. For further information about verification of conformity, see Conformity of rescue service equipment (in Finnish).
Harmonised product standards for voice evacuation systems are available under the Construction Products Directive in European standard EN 54 part 16 Fire detection and fire alarm systems. Components for fire alarm voice alarm systems.[A1] Voice alarm control and indicating equipment and part 24 Voice alarms – Loudspeakers. Equipment in accordance with the above standards must be CE marked.
EN 60849 Sound systems for emergency purposes is another standard that covers voice evacuation systems. In the EN 54 series of standards voice evacuation is regarded as part of the fire alarm system, while EN 60849 does not contain this requirement although it does enable the connection of voice evacuation to other systems.