Importance of Fire Alarm Systems
Md. Wahid Uddin
Proprietor- Olympia Fire Solution
All of us are well aware of the fact how hazardous a small splint of fire can be in our daily lives. We’ve had numerous examples of massive life losses due to some negligence of fire. Apart than that, we’ve seen people encountering loss of capital, goods and many more. However it’s not necessary that fire can only breakout in factories and garments, it can occur right at anyone’s household kitchen. And we can always prevent it by proper measures such as installation of smoke detector, fire alarm systems, sprinkler and fire hydrant systems.
A fire alarm system is a set of electric/electronic devices/equipment working together to detect and alert people through sounder or flashing sounders when smoke/fire is present. These alarms may be activated from smoke detectors, heat detectors, multi sensors, which are automatic or from a manual fire call point
Fire detection systems are designed to discover fires early in their development when time will still be available for the safe evacuation of occupants. Early detection also plays a significant role in protecting the safety of emergency response personnel. Property loss can be reduced and downtime for the operation minimized through early detection because control efforts are started while the fire is still small. Most alarm systems provide information to emergency responders on the location of the fire, speeding the process of fire control.
To be useful, detectors must be coupled with alarms. Alarm systems provide notice to at least the building occupants and usually transmit a signal to a staffed monitoring station either on or off site. In some cases, alarms may go directly to the fire department, although in most locations this is no longer the typical approach.
These systems have numerous advantages as discussed above. The one major limitation is that they do nothing to contain or control the fire. Suppression systems such as automatic sprinklers act to control the fire. They also provide notification that they are operating, so they can fill the role of a heat detection-based system if connected to notification appliances throughout the building. They will not, however, operate as quickly as a smoke detection system. This is why facilities where rapid notice is essential, even when equipped with sprinklers, still need detection and alarm systems.