In terms of fire protection, these “great indoors” present great challenges. This month’s LifeSafety addresses the challenges of protecting tenants and other occupants, assets and the environment of these indoor structures.

Occupants, including tenants, are a top priority. The building owner should think about the safety of visitors and workers when developing an Emergency Communications System (ECS). This should be an integral part of their Emergency Plan and address such things as what to do in various emergencies like bad weather, fire or a police situation. The ECS helps to communicate those plans to the building occupants in as safe and timely a manner as possible. To do this, intelligibility of speakers is incredibly important, as is clear and consistent messaging. Alert strobes, speakers and dual strobes can be key elements in an ECS system.

Minimizing nuisance alarms and preventing operating interruptions are also top priorities. A happy tenant is a long-term tenant. System Sensor intelligent multi-criteria detection reduces the likelihood of nuisance alarms and unnecessary disruptions.

When investing in large facilities, the investment needs to be protected from fire for many reasons. Whether it’s a sports stadium, a mall complete with ancillary occupancies, or an office building with a large atrium, System Sensor products safeguard these environments. You can depend on System Sensor for total protection for these “great indoors.”

By Roopa Shortt,
Audible Visible Marketing Manager, System Sensor

Americans like everything bigger: Bigger hotels, bigger stadiums, bigger convention centers. Bigger is not always better in terms of protecting large indoor properties, however. Rather, better technology and smarter planning can offer greater protection.

Integrated multi-detection devices, such as those sensing heat, smoke and carbon monoxide, are emerging to take a more inclusive approach to protecting indoor spaces. Voice evacuation systems for sharing important instructions are gaining traction and are borrowing intelligibility principles from similar public address system devices.

These technologies, as well as aspiration systems and other newer devices, have great potential for detecting danger and improving egress in some applications within large indoor properties.

The sophistication of protection in large indoor venues varies widely. According to the NFPA Fire Analysis and Research Division, 15 of the 17 large-loss fires in 2010 occurred in these structures. Many of these did not have automatic suppression systems; some didn’t even have functioning detection equipment or “human error” overrode the protective systems. These 15 structures, which included several public assembly buildings and large facilities, resulted in a total property loss of about $369.8 million.

• A deliberately set fire at the 1.4 million-sq.-ft. Roseville Galleria shopping center in California caused $110 million in damage.

• Two fires were reported in churches, including the historic, 8,000-sq.-ft. Provo Tabernacle in Utah, which reported a $15 million loss.

• A 300,000-sq.-ft. Louisiana restaurant and a 37,000-sq.-ft. South Carolina golf course country club each had damages of $10 million.

Large-loss fires capture attention from a design perspective due to the sheer magnitude of the fire and life safety challenge: How do you choose the right technologies to detect fires and protect people and property within facilities that could be the length of a football field or more? What is the proper tradeoff between system types, cost and coverage? How far do our responsibilities in systems design extend?

As cited in Home Insurance Co. of Illinois v. National Tea Co., a deli oven in one shopping mall store started a fire that destroyed the store and caused water and smoke damage to other mall stores. The trial judge concluded that the store in which the fire originated was solely responsible for the damage. The mall owners complied with all applicable building codes, and therefore, were not negligent.

In “Premises Liability for Shopping Mall Fire Safety,” John O. Hayward states that although tenants are liable in these cases, mall owners, who essentially act as landlords, should protect tenants from harm resulting from foreseeable activities taking place within these areas.

As the uses and designs of large public facilities continue to evolve, fire and life safety system planners would be well advised to go beyond meeting code and protecting each party’s legal obligations. By incorporating longer-term thinking for diverse uses and occupancies, engineers can help drive more thorough and responsible fire and life safety system designs.

Who’s the Client?

Admittedly, making the case for a more technologically advanced system can be challenging, depending on a number of factors, not the least of which is the client. When the client is a contractor in a design/build situation, cost is king, and the contractor may not appreciate any design that exceeds minimum code requirements. In that case, it may take some careful negotiation to convince the contractor to discuss with the building owners what levels of risk they may be exposed to with a minimum-code approach versus a more reliable or advanced fire and life safety system.

It’s ideal, then, to promote more technologically advanced systems while appealing to the goals and objectives of others involved in the decision-making process.

Kevin Kimmel, a senior fire protection engineer with architectural/engineering firm, Clark Nexsen in Norfolk, Virginia, has designed safety systems for numerous occupancies and large, indoor structures. He says tuning into building intent during the planning phase is key: If the architect and the client have spent hours in planning meetings talking about their design concepts and the beautiful interior for a new casino, then a design engineer needs to respect how important visuals are for the project.

“That’s when you pull the architect off to the side and explain, ‘We can do beam detection or discreet air sampling, and it will increase costs just slightly. Otherwise, you’ll have this,’” he says, while showing a photo of the 20 highly visible white spot detectors that will clash with the interior finishes and overall design aesthetic. “You want to make sure when you’re in those meetings that you’re listening to their mission so your system doesn’t interfere with that environment.”

It’s ideal, then, to promote more technologically advanced systems while appealing to the goals and objectives of others involved in the decision-making process – even when it’s a less critical safety design priority such as aesthetics.

A fire and life safety system is just one component of a commercial property, however. “The owner is not just sweating detectors and fire alarm systems; he’s looking at carpeting, furniture, lights, LEED points, all these other things that go into design,” says Kimmel. “We’re 30 seconds in a four-hour meeting. We have to understand our place as part of a huge system, and it has to all flow together.”

For example, a fire suppression system can limit the amount of damage a fire causes, but if it activates in error, the suppression system itself can cause costly damage or interfere with mission critical activities. In this case, fire sprinkler monitoring devices are used to ensure fire sprinklers work properly.

What’s the Occupancy?

Type of occupancy – whether it’s transient with a changing mix of people who are unfamiliar with the environment or non-transient with a fairly steady set of people who regularly frequent the space – also matters in designing for large facilities. Even within the institutional and commercial residential building segment, these occupancies can differ. It’s possible to prepare dormitory residents for building evacuations or run test drills for more non-fire emergencies, such as a shooting or severe weather conditions. In a hotel with new guests arriving every day, however, the focus shifts to informing occupants during the crisis.

This makes for a disturbing paradox: The occupants who best know their environments have more warning of and preparation for potential emergencies than those in transient environments who most need this information.

It’s understandable, however – hoteliers, retailers and theater owners do not care to worry their customers with troubling details that would detract from their enjoyment. Plus, it would be unimaginable from a business standpoint to require a convention center to evacuate show attendees for a disaster drill – the value of such an exercise would be extremely questionable in any case.

Fire protection engineers and system designers should balance the sometimes conflicting needs of protecting occupants and building assets with protecting a facility’s main mission, be it entertainment, financial interests, education, or other possibilities.

One such approach would be to include directional sound technology within the fire or emergency communications system to guide occupants to the nearest safe exit.

Triggered by the fire alarm control panel, directional sound technology, such as ExitPoint™ from System Sensor, emits a broadband sound frequency that occupants intuitively follow, decreasing evacuation times by up to 75 percent. This helps to ensure that occupants who are unfamiliar with the building’s egress routes or emergency plans can quickly escape the building safely – even in smoke-filled or darkened buildings with little or no visibility.

What’s Normal?

Although a fire and life safety designer usually commands a good understanding of the occupancy and structural type, it’s wise to evaluate all possible uses – current and future – as well as the conditions under which the fire and life safety systems will operate.

While reaching an idea of what constitutes normal, everyday use for a large building is fairly simple, it’s also easy to overlook unusual circumstances or application changes that can affect the environment. These out-of-the-ordinary instances could be seasonal in nature, related to special occasions such as concerts and other performances within the mall that impact noise and foot traffic, or physical additions such as a waterfall in a hotel lobby that could muffle notification devices or create problems due to high humidity. When designing for intelligibility, it is important to consider worst case scenarios for ambient noise, and to design a voice evacuation system that would meet those requirements.

Planning for the ordinary and the extraordinary within the framework of what’s normal in fire and life safety system design is just part of the picture. Engineers and systems designers also have to balance cost efficiencies, environmental applicability and suitability, and the business interests of all involved parties, among many other factors.

When it comes to life safety, large venues require big thinking.

Jim Mickowski, an engineer with PSJ Engineering, has more than 25 years of experience in the design and installation of fire suppression systems. His experience ranges from working on stadiums, museums and office buildings to high-security, high-risk areas in correctional facilities and nuclear facilities where there is “no access allowed.”

Can you tell us about your company?

PSJ Engineering is a mechanical engineering company specializing in the design of fire protection building systems as well as heating, ventilating, air conditioning and plumbing. We have been designing fire protection systems for 25 years. PSJ is headquartered in Milwaukee with an office in Madison, Wisconsin. We’ve been fortunate to have a wide gamut of projects from stadiums to office buildings. The company has completed work for Miller Park (home of the Milwaukee Brewers) and the Milwaukee Museum.

How do you define a no-access-allowed area?

We have designed fire protection systems for penal and nuclear reactor control rooms and would consider these areas high-security, no-access-allowed areas. You can also classify control rooms and areas that house computer infrastructure, where computers need to be protected from water and vandalism, as no-access-allowed areas.

What types of fire safety systems and products do you recommend for these types of projects?

We recommend single and double interlock pre-action systems, because they have many benefits. They provide early warning. They are relatively low cost, simple to install, easy to operate and maintain, and you don’t have to consider room construction or HVAC, as is the case when using a clean agent system. We’ve had a lot of problems activating clean agent systems and getting them to work correctly. The envelope that those systems require depends on the HVAC and building construction. It’s very difficult to keep the building construction tight enough. The air has to go somewhere, so the HVAC system has to complement a clean agent system. It gets a little complicated.

A single or double pre-action with trouble alarms before the water actually enters the piping gives maintenance or supervisory personnel an opportunity to investigate and then take appropriate action. The best way to minimize impact is to provide early warning so people can investigate and take action.

How do you design for an area that is to remain off-limits to most?

Typically, no-access areas are small areas in relationship to the whole project. Those areas should not affect the overall impact of construction cost. We design each area as a pod. In that pod, we design the system so there has to be a smoke or heat detector activated before the water even enters the piping. And then you still have the final safeguard: the sprinkler head. The water doesn’t discharge until the sprinkler heads open up. We are trying to prevent accidental discharge.

For instance, a penal control room is a very small area with numerous cells. The cells obviously are vandal resistant but are not really high security. A lot of times, a prisoner will knock off a sprinkler head and get a discharge of water. Sure, it’s a pain to fix, but it’s not causing any catastrophic damage. The penal control room, however, is the no-access area. If the computers or the security hardware are damaged, you are talking about infrastructure issues that could cost large amounts of money.

I think money and cost to repair go hand in hand when designing a project with no-access-allowed areas. That is what you are trying to eliminate. You are trying to take the maximum safeguards to protect that equipment. Can you imagine if chaos erupted due to fire, and someone got into a penal control room? They could release the cells and doors. You need to protect the electronics and control mechanisms. Treating each of those areas as pods helps secure that area and minimize cost in the event of a fire.

“Can you imagine if chaos erupted due to fire, and someone got into a penal control room? They could release the cells and doors. You need to protect the electronics and control mechanisms.”
— Jim Mickowski, Engineer, PSJ Engineering

So why wouldn’t you use an aspiration system in these areas instead?

It’s not that we wouldn’t use it. We just prefer wet suppression. Aspiration is also a simple system; but it is smoke detection, not fire suppression. It certainly has its place. Incipient fire detection, if a project can afford it, is one of the nicest luxuries any owner can afford. The false alarms caused by dust are a thing of the past.

What types of challenges do you have with no-access-allowed areas?

There is always the challenge to protect the computers. Computers should not be subject to water exposure. We opt to design water suppression systems in a computer room all the time – and we put sprinkler systems in computer rooms all the time. The key in the computer room is to turn the power off before water is discharged. Computers can withstand getting wet provided the power is not on. It’s when the computer power is on and the water shorts them out that you have a problem. We use a combination of water flow switches that are in the piping; when the water comes into the piping, it turns off all power to the computers. And don’t forget the battery backup.

What specifics must you consider when designing fire suppression systems for no-access-areas?

In today’s economy, you want to open it up for every qualified individual to be able to maintain the system you are designing. It only benefits the owner’s maintenance budget. If you have a highly specialized system that only the factory can maintain, it can drive up costs. We are firm believers in keeping it simple; wet suppression is a simple system. It’s important for the maintenance people to understand the system and the operation of it. Typically, the maintenance staff has not been trained on high-tech fire protection systems, so we try to make sure we design the simplest system that will perform in accordance with the user’s requirements.

“Incipient fire detection, if a project can afford it, is one of the nicest luxuries any owner can afford. The false alarms caused by dust are a thing of the past.”
— Jim Mickowski, Engineer, PSJ Engineering

What advice do you have for others in your field when designing a fire safety system for high-security/no-access-allowed projects?

The fire protection engineer must look at it from the perspective of the person who has to maintain it. A sophisticated system is not good if there is no one who knows how to maintain it. Meet the user to verify that he understands the system and see if he has any comments. It has been our experience that if the user supports the design, you have a happy client. Have a colleague look at the design with a fresh set of eyes and get his comments. The building manager should be able to contract any fire protection contractor to maintain the system if they cannot do the maintenance themselves. Keep these questions in mind:

• Will maintenance personnel understand the way it works?
• Is it simple enough?
• Is there something that I can do to help the maintenance person understand?
• Does your client want to subcontract the maintenance?
• Will all fire protection contractors have the ability to maintain the system?

“System Sensor devices are working together in a networked fire alarm situation, thereby providing increased fire protection for one of the crown jewels of theSeattleschool district.”
— Dennis Lane, Sales Engineer at Chubb

Renovation of the 230,000-squarefoot Chief Sealth was completed with an emphasis on life safety issues and energy and environmental conservation, while revitalizing the school’s appearance inside and out. The objective was to create a superior educational environment, including classrooms with technology upgrades, new foreign language classrooms, a renovated auditorium and full Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility.

Catering to roughly 1,000 students, who comprise one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse student bodies in Washingtonstate, Chief Sealth has undergone periodic upgrades to its fire and life safety system prior to this renovation. Already equipped with NOTIFIER^® and System Sensor products, the newly designed system was required to maintain that standard and reuse as much as possible.

Because of its specific experience with NOTIFIER and System Sensor devices, Chubb Fire & Security, a UTC Fire & Security Company, worked with Tres West Engineers of Tacoma, Wash., to design and manage the installation of the fire and life safety system for the school renovation. Chubb is a fully licensed fire, life safety and security contractor with expertise at retrofitting properties to current safety standards.

Because Chief Sealth has serviced the community since its opening in 1957, the school district was concerned about maintaining its heritage and existing architecture, including its beautiful, arched ceilings. This was one of the factors that played into the fire and life safety system design.

“There were some complications in the actual design of the fire alarm system related to accommodating unblemished ceilings, which in turn created obstacles in installing the devices,” says Tony Bartling, Project Manager at Chubb. “The goal was to do as little exposed pipe work as possible, which caused some additional challenges in determining the locations of the smoke detectors and of the audible visible devices.”

Overall, detectors and notification devices were placed throughout the campus in accordance with the International Fire Code. But that didn’t always prove to be easy. “One of the challenges in the building was the number of beams that crossed corridors.” saysDennis Lane, Sales Engineer at Chubb.

The driving factor was to provide a code-compliant system. “The nice part about the current fire alarm system is it is easily expandable to accommodate additional notification devices or the smoke detectors, beam detectors, heat detectors, what have you. The device compatibility and expansion becomes a nonissue,” says Bartling.

“System Sensor devices are working together in a networked fire alarm situation, thereby providing increased fire protection for one of the crown jewels of theSeattleschool district,” says Lane.

Inmates will abuse any building component within reach. So how do you design a system to detect and protect while keeping it safe, too?

Any building environment prone to vandalism requires special fire and life safety systems design considerations. In the case of prisons and correctional facilities, fire and life safety response planning differs from other high-abuse environments because the majority of the occupants are behind locked doors. This poses unique challenges in terms of fire safety and may be the most difficult to protect from fire, in part because the cardinal rule of immediate evacuation does not apply.

There are many different functional buildings, or sections of buildings, in a prison, including workshops, laundries, stores, classrooms, athletic facilities, religious facilities, administrative offices, medical units and the house-blocks. Special consideration is needed in the cell blocks, and potentially the medical unit, where prisoners are locked into their accommodations.

Similar to public hospitals, prisons and mental institutions adhere to a “protect-in-place” strategy, opting to relocate occupants from the area of fire origin to a secure area within the facility. Yet, to be effective, fire and life safety systems in these sites must incorporate highly intuitive, cutting-edge technology in compliance with local regulations and applicable standards.

Designing for High Security

Fire protection designs for a prison follow strict guidelines that are spelled out in NFPA and local building codes. NFPA 101^®: Life Safety Code^®, requires new jails to be constructed of limited- or non-combustible materials. Automatic fire sprinkler and detection systems are mandated to be present throughout. When dealing with potentially hostile facility types, NFPA 101 also requires a manual, automatic or combination manual/automatic fire-alarm system to be installed.

In addition, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has a set of fire protection guidelines for federally controlled correctional facilities. The guidelines are focused on providing life safety for the inmates while emphasizing the need to minimize fire hazards as well as to remove the opportunity for vandalism in the form of arson. Smoke control often plays a key part of the design and fire engineering approach.

Fire and life safety within controlled-access institutions can be achieved through the use of early warning smoke detection, automatic sprinklers, compartmentalization, established fire zones and a relocation plan. Considering the small space and restricted means of egress, early detection and response are critical.

Prisons have the reputation for being the worst abusers of fire protection systems. Finding a balance between effective smoke detection – while avoiding nuisance alarms – and tamper resistance often leads to installation of detectors behind ventilation grilles, outside cells or in cross-listed cages. This makes maintenance, testing and inspections cumbersome. Early warning is imperative for controlled response and evacuation before reaching dangerous levels of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and temperature.

Viability of Spot Detection

Typically, photoelectric and ionization detectors are used to passively detect smoke. These addressable, early warning smoke detectors, as well as heat detectors, can be an option for protecting a prison if they are tamper resistant and are strategically placed to avoid vandalism.

Not only do the devices need to be out of the physical reach of inmates who could damage or disable them; they must also be out of the range of other destructive sources, such as water that inmates could throw on the devices. Therfore, placement and installation can be just as important as the type of detection chosen.

Another viable solution is intelligent Very Early Warning Fire Detection spot detectors, which are similar to traditional detectors except that they employ a more advanced detection method. For example, laser-based smoke detectors are up to 100 times more sensitive to smoke than standard addressable or conventional smoke detectors. They are designed to respond to incipient fire conditions as low as 0.02% obscuration per foot to provide valuable time for personnel to investigate the affected area and to take appropriate action.

[The Federal Bureau of Prisons] guidelines are focused on providing life safety for the inmates while emphasizing the need to minimize fire hazards as well as to remove the opportunity for vandalism in the form of arson.

Because intelligent laser smoke detectors are individually addressable, they are able to send information to the central control station, thereby pinpointing the exact location of the smoke. This can be key to providing the protect-in-place strategy in that officials can immediately identify the problem area and take action, including sending someone to investigate the problem and moving occupants to a different section of the facility.

Aspiration: High Sensitivity and Security

Aspiration detection systems, which are capable of detecting byproducts of combustion in concentrations as low as 0.00046% obscuration per foot, offer advanced and Very Early Warning Fire Detection for specialized applications, as well as for sites requiring more careful consideration.

Because aspiration systems use a series of pipes with pinpoint holes to continuously sample the air for trace amounts of smoke, these detectors are well suited for prisons and other vandal-prone environments. The pipes can be run through the ceilings or other building components, well out of the reach of prying hands. Plus, any portion of the piping projecting through to the protected rooms is so minimal that it can even be difficult to see. Most importantly, aspiration detection provides enough time for personnel to plan or conduct a controlled response, whether it’s to suppress the smoke source or to evacuate a portion of the facility, which is important for protecting lives while maintaining security.

Aspiration detection can be installed in various areas of a facility and can be programmed at different sensitivity ranges. In a prison, range adjustment enables aspiration systems to work just as well in machine shops or boiler rooms within the prison as they do in individual cells or common areas, while allowing for differences in air quality, humidity, temperature and other factors.

Sprinkler Considerations

Fire sprinkler systems are yet another component of the fire and life safety system in prisons. Many designs are adjusted to minimize vandalism to the sprinkler heads. Because the sprinkler heads are an easy target, especially for bored inmates or institutionalized patients, pre-action fire sprinkler systems with pop-out designs are widely used.

An electronic valve controlled by the heat or smoke detection unit in pre-action fire sprinkler systems holds back water. Individual sprinkler heads open to release water onto the areas where it is most needed and concentrate the flow of water directly onto the fire.

Pre-action systems normally have only pressurized air in the pipe; merely releasing the air pressure will not allow water into the pipe. The pre-action valve is controlled by a releasing panel, which can be configured to release water after receiving one or multiple signals.

The fire and life safety system design for prison and correctional facilities takes on elements that challenge current detection technology. The high potential for vandalism and suicide attempts adds equipment considerations that can be easily overlooked by those unfamiliar with this environment. Understanding the features, listings and approvals for the devices is always a primary element of a system design.

Systems for prisons have unique considerations and elements outside of the typical standards and building codes. Care must be taken to ensure all aspects of the design have been properly evaluated to ensure the safest fire and life safety system possible.

OSHA Fire Response Regulations for Prisons

Locked Doors: According to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), correctional, mental and penal facilities have slightly different fire response regulations than other types of workplaces and public places. OSHA requires that all buildings have exit routes unblocked by any locked doors or other obstructions to a fast and efficient exit. In the case of mental, penal or correctional facilities, locked doors may block exit routes as long as supervisory personnel are continuously posted along the exit routes, as necessary, to allow a fast exit response in case of emergency. Guard personnel must be trained in emergency evacuation procedures and be prepared to unlock any doors at a moment’s notice. In these cases, according to OSHA regulation 1910.36(d)(3), exit route doors may be locked from the inside, given that the facility has an escape plan in place.

Means of Egress: OSHA requires that all public places and workplaces have a clearly marked, easily navigable means of egress, or exit route, in case of an emergency such as a fire. This means of egress must meet all of the criteria for regular workplaces. Locked, guarded doors are permissible in correctional facilities, however. Otherwise, the facility must have at least two exit routes and as many additional routes as necessary to allow full evacuation in a timely manner. The main exit door of the exit route must remain unlocked and must swing outward, hinging on the side.

Alarms and Detectors: Any fire extinguishers, alarms and detectors all undergo regular inspection and testing to ensure their proper functioning as required by OSHA. The precise number of fire extinguishers, alarms and detectors required in a correctional facility varies by state and even locally, according to which version of the National Fire Protection Association code an area uses as its standard. As part of emergency readiness training, all guard personnel must be trained and capable of using fire extinguishers as needed.

In addition, you’ll find training and white papers on ECS-related subjects, including codes and standards and meeting intelligibility requirements for voice evacuation systems. Finally, you’ll find information on new software tools that can help you design intelligible voice evacuation systems for your ECS projects.

The System Sensor 5600 Series of mechanical heat detectors come in a variety of configurations to meet your application needs. To find the 5600 Series heat detector for your project, visit systemsensor.com/heat.

SpectrAlert^® Advance Dual Strobe and Dual Strobe with Speaker Expander Plates provide dual strobe and speaker strobe functionality that’s easy for a single person to wire and install. Simply mount the plate to a junction box and connect the field wiring to the terminals. To complete the installation, hinge and attach the strobe or speaker strobe device with a single captured mounting screw.

Dual Strobe and Dual Strobe with Speaker Expander Plates are designed for use in 12 or 24 volt, DC or FWR (full wave rectified) systems. Amber lens strobes are UL 1638-Listed (Visual Signaling Appliances) for Private Mode General Utility Signaling. All SpectrAlert Advance products are suitable for use in synchronized systems. To learn more, visit systemsensor.com/ecs.

The 5151 replaces the 5451 heat detector and carries the same electrical properties in a newer, more modern package. The new housing matches other System Sensor conventional products, enabling you to provide your customers with a consistent look throughout their facilities. For more information on the 5151, visit systemsensor.com/heat.

If you don’t, this issue is still for you.

Your typical client projects need not fall squarely in the “extreme” category to benefit from innovative and integrated fire and life safety strategies that target that market segment. When you think about it, when is a project ever truly ordinary? Don’t most projects have some unusual twist or challenge that makes them extreme in their own regard?

A community center may be considered fairly ordinary. Yet if it has a multi-story atrium where smoke could be trapped and not reach standard smoke detectors, then it, too, has an extreme design feature that requires special planning. Think about the janitorial supply room in a theater, the chemistry lab in a school or the auto shop attached to a retail store. These areas present hazards that are unique within the context of their surroundings.

The thinking that goes into designing extreme fire and life safety systems also applies to more ordinary situations, and includes thoroughly understanding the environment to be protected, applying codes properly and deploying safety measures to ensure that suppression systems don’t do more harm than good.

This issue’s Ask the Expert columnist states: “Each environment has to be evaluated on its own merits to determine the best integrated solution.” System Sensor can assist you with a broad variety of solutions as you assess, design and install the proper combination of systems to do the job right.

By Todd Alford

Manager of Product Marketing, System Sensor