What is a Fire Alarm System or an “Early Warning” system, what does it do and why installation of the same is important for buildings, its occupants and the property?
Most of us know about the “Fire Triangle” and the following three arms of the triangle;
1. Oxygen,
2. Heat/Flame/Spark and
3. Fuel
When all the above mentioned combine, a fire is caused, which in technical language, is known as “Combustion”. And the product of fire, commonly known as Smoke, in technical language is called Products of Combustion.
When a Fire or combustion takes place, in most of the cases smoke (Products of Combustion) is emanated by the burning material, which is generally referred to as Smoke, as the same can be seen with our naked eyes. However, there are chemicals, which burn with very high temperature, but without producing any smoke or the visible products of combustion.
In residences it is not only the clothes, curtains, carpets, wooden furniture that catch fire due to negligent acts, the electrical circuitry of the building, the electrical distribution boards within the house/flat and the electrical appliances also catch fire due to various reasons.
When any one or a combination of the above mentioned items or the circuitry or wiring of an electrical gadget, such as a Maxie, Microwave Oven, Refrigerator, Dishwasher and the like gets overheated due to a fault in the machine or unintentional overloading of the equipment, products of combustion (at times invisible smoke) is generated and the same, because of its characteristic, rises towards the ceiling and spreading horizontally.
The said phenomenon also applies to the power points (commonly known as the electrical power socket on to which plugs of the abovementioned gadgets are inserted to make the gadget work). Visible and invisible products of combustion (Smoke) may emanate from these points if the same are overloaded or if there is a loose connection or if the wiring of the socket is improper/underrated. The products of combustion generated by the said electrical points, because of its characteristic, will rise towards the ceiling spreading horizontally, and if an appropriate type of electronic detector is placed appropriately on the ceiling/false ceiling, the said product of combustion will get detected in the incipient stage of fire, i.e., even before the wiring or the equipment bursts into flames, involving the combustible materials around it.
If appropriate type of Smoke Detectors/Heat Detectors have been installed on the ceiling/false ceiling and above the false ceiling (if there is a false ceiling), conforming to relevant standards, the smoke or heat detector would detect smoke or heat, as the case may be, within about a minute of onset of fire/heat and generate an alarm to alert the occupants and the security/firefighting personnel.
Note: Here is a quick and a simple experiment for those who neither know anything about the invisible products of combustion (Invisible Smoke) or have not heard of the same.
1. Place a vessel (other than a non-stick pan/vessel, because overheating of the non-stick pan/vessel for the experiment, may damage the coating) on the gas stove. Do not pour water or oil or anything else in the pan/vessel.
2. Light the gas burner and turn it on to the maximum or high flame position.
3. Move away, say about 6 or 8 feet, from the vessel.
4. The vessel will get overheated in less than a minute and
5. You will get a smell, similar to the smell you experience when something burns with flames, emanating smoke. But, in this case, you will neither see flames, nor the visible smoke, except for the smell. ( Your nostrils, of course, have to be sensitive enough to catch the smell of the overheated vessel, the way you catch the aroma of good food from a distance 😊)
Caution: Pl make a note of the following and follow the advice;
1. Please DO NOT touchthe overheated pan/vessel or pour water in it to cool it down quickly. Touching the hot vessel will cause burn injury and pouring water on the overheated vessel may cause it to collapse and the steam generated by it may cause severe burn injuries.
2. Turn off the gas immediately after the experiment and
3. Allow the pan/vessel to cool down on its own and after a few minutes remove it from the gas stove with the help of Tongs.
The smell experienced by you is nothing else but the invisible products of combustion (Invisible Smoke), and this is what we have talked of herein above.
Hence, for a better understanding it would be appropriate to refer, the products of combustion as;
1. Visible Products of Combustion and
2. Invisible Products of Combustion.
Therefore, irrespective of the material on fire, products of combustion are bound to be there; visible or invisible as also the heat produced by the burning material.
This is where an Early Warning System or an Automatic Fire Detection & Alarm System comes into play; be it an;
1. Automatic Smoke Detection System or
2. Automatic Heat Detection System or
3. Automatic Combined Smoke & Heat Detection System
An Automatic Fire Detection system detects the fire in its incipient stage and immediately triggers an alarm to notify the occupants of the building and the Fire & Security personnel, well within the first couple of minutes so that the fire may be controlled/extinguished before it spreads and the occupants may be evacuated without any loss of time.
The Automatic Fire Alarm Systems employ Detectors, Manual Call Points, and either just sounders or sounder cum strobes (Combination of Sounder & Bright Flashing Light) to attract the attention of personnel by just the loud sound produced by the sounder or with a combination of sound and a flashing light mounted on the sounder, as the light can be seen from a distance even if the ambient sound level were to be very high to drown the sound of the Fire Alarm Sounder. A Strobe comes in very handy for the people with hearing disability.
You may choose to install one of the following Automatic fire alarm systems;
1. A conventional system or
2. An Intelligent Addressable System.
An Intelligent Addressable fire alarm system is preferred over the Conventional system for its built-in intelligence, for the ease of identification of the affected zone/area and the faults emanating from the system, analysis of all events stored in the memory of the system and above all, ease of maintenance of the system etc., etc.
CONCLUSION:
As mentioned herein above, the purpose of an Early Warning System or a Fire alarm system is to detect the fire in its incipient stage and notify the building occupants and transmit a warning signal to the command control station for an early action to save the lives and property. As soon as a fire takes place, detectors located in strategic locations detect the fire and transmit a signal to the Control Panel, which in turn generates an audio-visual alarm identifying the affected zone, thus enabling the firefighting personnel to rush to the spot of fire and douse the fire and arrange for immediate evacuation of the occupants of the building.
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