The invention relates to a hazard alarm control unit having a housing (1), having a first electronic assembly (2) which is releasably fastened in the housing (1) and comprises a central processing unit (3) which is configured to execute stored programming instructions including at least one configuration module, and also a detector signal acquisition unit (4) and a controlling unit (5). The hazard alarm control unit also has a second electronic assembly (6) which is formed on an outside (10) as an operating and display front panel without a display and has switching elements (7) and luminous indicators (8) and is formed on an inside (9) as an commissioning and configuration unit (11) which comprises configuration parameter selector (12, 13, 14, 15) and a first optical display (20), the second electronic assembly (6) being connected to the first electronic assembly in a signal-conducting manner and being set up such that the set configuration parameters of the configuration parameter selector (12, 13, 14, 15) are accepted by the first electronic assembly for holding and processing in the at least one configuration module. The invention also relates to a method for commissioning and configuring a hazard alarm control unit.