Fire Alarm

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Fire Alarm Call Point

Category

Regulations, Safety Signs, Safety Action, Fire Equipment

Message / Function

To indicate the location of or direction to a fire alarm call point or to identify a device that initiates a fire alarm and emits an acoustic and/or visual alarm and/or notification of fire.

	Source	Description
	Dreyfuss	Side view of bell inside blue frame
	BVG	Side view of bell, three arcs on each side indicating sound
a)	Collins 82	Side view of tilted bell inside circle, serveral arcs around indicating sound
1)	Icograda	Flame, arrow below pointing towards bell on the right
2)	Icograda	Flame, filled circle with side view of bell inside
3)	Icograda	Four vertical wavy lines, bell inside circle, all in outline
A)	Testdesign	Tilted bell, three arcs on the right, flames in bottom right corner
	Gärling 85	Burning house in outline, bell on the right
B)	ON Testdesign	Flame, hand in plan view with one finger extended touching dot inside circle
C)	ON Testdesign	Hand in plan view with one finger extended and pointing downwards towards dot, flame on the right
	ISO 7010	Hand in plan view with one finger extended, dot in square (outlined) broken at bottom, flame on the right
	Tern	Hand in plan view with one finger extended, dot in square (outlined) broken at bottom, flame on the right
4)	Icograda	Dot inside circle in top right corner, flames below
	Gärling 85	Circle with dot in center, three arcs on each side indicating sound, flames below
	HSSS	Red disk with white dot in center, two arcs on each side indicating sound
	HSSS	Disk with white dot in center, two arcs on each side indicating sound, all on red backgound
	ANSI	Disk with white dot in center, two arcs on each side indicating sound
b)	Collins 82	Hammer touching disk with dot in center, two arcs and lines on three sides
	SABS 1186:1978	Rectangle with hammer touching disk below with dot in center, four jagged lines around hammer head
	Le Grange	Two connected arcs, left one ending with dot
5)	Sello	Disk with many white jagged lines ending at dot in center
	ANSI	Twelve red jagged lines surrounding red dot in center and ending there
	Collins & Pierman 79	Rectangle in outline with circle inside, all lines very bold
	Swiss Post	Side view of speaker, three arcs on the right indicating sound
	IEC 60417	Square, with attached polygon made of three lines
c)	Collins 82	Side view of telephone receiver, flames on the right hand, all on round background
	ISO 7000	Side view of house with door and chimney in outline, flames at door
	Gärling 85	Side view of house in outline, flames on roof

Discussion

The range of pictograms shown in the table above gives a good hint of the diversity of variants and image contents available to indicate the location of or direction to a fire alarm call point or to identify a device that initiates a fire alarm and emits an acoustic and/or visual alarm and/or notification of fire. A few of these graphic symbols were developed as entries for the Icograda student project (Frascara). No single visual stereotype can be identified.

A number of studies examined several aspects regarding this referent:

In the context of this Icograda student project and the ISO test series 1979/80 (Easterby & Graydon, 1981 a) five graphic symbols intended for the message Fire Alarm were examined using the Appropriateness Ranking method. The numbers 1) to 5) represent the final rank order of the symbols tested. Subsequently the best three - marked 1) to 3) in the table above - were tested for comprehension (Easterby & Graydon, 1981 b) on several continents. None of these variants reached an acceptable number of correct responses. Almost half of the participants did not respond at all regarding the pictogram labeled 3) and one quarter of the answers for this variant were wrong or 'Don't know'. With 63.0 % correct responses the variant marked 1) performed best.

ISO testing continued with an Appropriateness Ranking Test conducted in Sweden, where Gärling (1985) examined 18 variants for Fire Alarm: The pictogram variants showing flames in different contexts or presenting the word ALARM were ranked better than all other variants tested. Reference No 5014 from IEC 60417 with the official message Horn, electrical / electromechanical and the symbol showing a rectangle in outline with a circle inside, all lines very bold, were rated as least appropriate. These two were correctly identified by 16 % resp. 8 % of the respondents only in an earlier study reported by Collins & Pierman (1979), results confirming the rank order established.

In the subsequent ISO Comprehension Tests, conducted in Australia, Austria, Hungary, Japan, and the United Kingdom (Brugger 1987), the design marked with B) in the table above performed very well with about 87.2 % correct responses when applying lenient scoring. The variant marked A) reached somewhat lower scores, especially in Japan, probably because bells are not as common in Japan. Pictogram C) showing a hand pointing downwards towards a dot with flames on the right, performed less well with 66.8 % correct responses.

In research limited to safety signs mainly among blue collar industrial workers and regarding graphical symbols marked a) to c), (Collins et.al, 1982, Collins, 1983) not a single variant seemed to be well understood and elicited numerous wrong responses like Noise Area, Hearing Protection, Bells Ringing, School Zone, Church for variant a) and High Noise, Use Ear Protection, Bell, Grinding Wheel, Machine, Rotating Shaft, and Vibration upon Striking for b), while the most frequent answer for variant c) was Fire Phone.

Recommendations

Regarding the test results available we recommend using pictogram TS0811 Fire alarm call point, an improved version of pictogram F005: Fire Alarm Call Point from ISO 7010, a registered safety sign. This pictogram is easily comprehensible for most persons even if just presented in black and white.

Tests of pictograms of referent Fire Alarm

Brugger, Ch. (1987): Evaluation of Public Information Symbols, ISO 1986 Test Series: Comprehension / Recognition Test. Vienna: ISO/TC 145/SC 1.

Collins, B.L. (1983): Use of Hazard Pictorials/Symbols in the Mineral Industry. Washington, D.C.: National Bureau of Standards, NBSIR 83-2732, September 1983.

Collins, B.L., Lerner, N.D. & Pierman, B.C. (1982): Symbols for Industrial Safety. Washington, D.C.: National Bureau of Standards, NBSIR 82-2485, April 1982.

Collins, B.L. & Pierman, B.C. (1979): Evaluation of Safety Symbols. Washington, D.C.: National Bureau of Standards, NBSIR 79-1760, June 1979.

Easterby, R.S. & Graydon, I.R. (1981 a): Evaluation of Public Information Symbols: ISO Test: 1979/80 Series. Part I: Appropriateness Ranking Tests. AP Report 99, Applied Psychology Department, University of Aston in Birmingham, January 1981.

Easterby, R.S. & Graydon, I.R. (1981 b): Evaluation of Public Information Symbols: ISO 1979/80 Test Series. Part II: Comprehension/Recognition Tests. AP Report 100, Applied Psychology Department, University of Aston in Birmingham, January 1981.

Gärling, T. (1985): ISO Appropriateness Ranking Test 1985 - Redovisning av genomförande. Report to the Swedish Standards Institute dated 1985-07-24.