Wired Fire Alarm Systems

Fire alarm systems are essential to provide adequate detection and warning of a fire situation within commercial and residential premises.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2006, requires businesses and organisations to have a fire risk assessment carried out by a competent person. The competent person can choose to nominate a third-party Fire Risk Assessor; ensuring they are fully qualified and have read and understand the current legislation required.

Part of the fire risk assessment includes identifying the type of fire detection system required and the relevant British Standard to conform to. Legislation for commercial businesses, organisations and HMOs, is likely that the system must comply with BS 5839-1.

There are basically two categories of fire alarm system, manual and automatic. Automatic systems are generally divided into two main categories, Life (L) and Property (P). Life category systems are then generally divided into a further five categories, L1 through to L5 and Property systems are generally divided into a further two categories, P1 and P2.

Once it has been established through the fire risk assessment which of these various categories is required the fire alarm system can be designed. The detection and visual and audible requirements of a fire alarm system are dependent on the layout and usage of a building/site.

A fire alarm system consists of a number of devices working together to detect and warn people through visual and audio devices when smoke, fire, carbon monoxide or other emergencies are present. These alarms may be activated automatically by detectors or may also be activated manually by manual call points.  Audible and visual alarms then operate to alert people to follow the buildings/site evacuation plan and Interfaces are used to shutdown equipment.

• Control Panels
• Point Detection & Manual Call Points
• Audible & Visual Devices
• Interfaces

There are basically two types of fire alarm systems, Non-Addressable also called Conventional and Addressable. Non-Addressable fire alarm systems consist of detection zones, that utilise point detection and manual call points and then have alarm zones (circuits) to provide audible/visual alarms. In the event of an activation the control panel will indicate the area (zone) where the activation has occurred.

Analogue Addressable fire alarm systems consist of loops, that utilise all types of fire alarm devices. They provide exact location of any device activated to enable much faster search & rescue times and are far more versatile.