Fire Detection in the Spotlight
Detecting fires quickly is essential for preventing catastrophes, especially when large amounts of flammable materials can spread fire quickly and cause toxic smoke. This is especially the case with historic buildings, as effective detection systems could have saved ninety per cent of the historical and artistic heritage destroyed over the last decade.
Technology is advancing in all sectors and in firefighting, says Antonio Tortosa, vice chairman of TECNIFUEGO, the Spanish Association of Fire Protection Companies. In this context, communications between fire control panels and peripheral systems and remote management from control panels are becoming increasingly essential features. In addition, “it’s important to differentiate between Fire Alarm Receiving Centres and general Alarm Receiving Centres (ARCs), as they are different and work differently in case of fire and intrusion emergencies.
Tortosa explains that “different regulations and standards require buildings, industrial premises, and other infrastructure to have fire protection systems installed, to ensure the safety of occupants and goods, and limit the damage.” In particular, detection and alarm systems “actively monitor the start and progress of a fire, but at other times they monitor the operating status of other protection systems, to ensure they are always available in an emergency.”
For fire protection to be effective, systems must be permanently monitored by trained personnel. “In places where there is no such continuous monitoring or staff are not properly trained, or the system is temporarily left unattended, there’s no guarantee that the signals will be acted upon. In those cases, measures must be in place to ensure that alarm signals are transmitted in the shortest possible time, such as connecting the systems to a control centre.”
Wider use of flammable materials in buildings, machinery, storage, processes, tools, and everyday items has meant that fires spread quickly, and, significantly, they spread toxic smoke. “The speed with which a fire spreads, from when it starts, up to the point where it becomes unfeasible to control, is directly related to the time it takes to initiate actions to extinguish it. So, we have to consider connecting fire detection systems to Fire Alarm Management systems designed to provide a continuous, safe and efficient service.”
Historic Buildings
Fire detection is crucial for historical and artistic heritage buildings. Pablo Muñoz del Olmo, chairman of the Fundación Fuego (Fire Foundation), recalls that “two years after the fire at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, a world symbol of architectural, artistic and spiritual heritage, we were shocked by yet another major disaster: the fire at the University of Cape Town. That fire destroyed the world’s largest collection of African art and reduced that civilisation’s legacy to ashes. And even before those events, “the historical and artistic cultural expression of the Amazonian civilisation and the Brazilian people was also lost to fire at the National Museum of Brazil.”
Muñoz explains that “these disasters are not isolated events. They can have multiple causes, often due to poor maintenance of facilities or human carelessness. But the spread of these fires is determined by one key factor: the lack of an adequate detection system to alert about such an event in time to be able to react and minimise the consequences.”
These examples show that one of the most effective ways to protect world heritage is to equip these buildings with an effective fire detection system. “Doing that could have saved ninety per cent of the historical and artistic heritage destroyed in the last decade. That highlights not only the scale of the irreparable material losses, but that prevention is vastly cheaper than restoration.”