WHERE HAVE ALL OUR ZONES GONE?
A recent trend has appeared from the fire detection panel manufacturers, by supplying panels into the industry without zone LED's.
This was introduced by one manufacturer who could now undercut the price of his competition. This however, has had a bad effect as most other suppliers have followed their lead.
By supplying the panel without the zone LED board they are able to reduce the cost of the panel and if you want zone LED's you have to pay extra and then end up back at the true cost.
By offering these panels into the industry they can gather market share from the un knowing and uncaring contractors, but are they not increasing the fire risk and endangering the lives of people who have these panels installed into their premises?
The purpose of zone LED's is being overlooked, they are not there to look pretty, to aid the system programmer or installer but are there to enable quick indication of the location of a fire for the fire fighter.
We all know the quicker we respond to a fire the quicker we can bring it under control and save lives or property. The LED's are there for an "at a glance" indication of the location of the fire for the fire fighter attending the building. He does not have the time to interrogate an LCD display and start operating buttons with big gloved hands. He needs to know the approximate location of the source of the fire, he will soon find the actual fire source if he can get there in good time.
Whilst manufacturers are now complicating this procedure National standards are increasing their demand for zone indication via LED's.
In a fire at the Rose Park old age home in Scotland where 14 elderly people died it was reported that the staff could not locate the source of the alarm, The zone indications were incorrectly configured which sent the fire department to the wrong area of the building, lives were unnecessarily lost.
The British standards have added sections in their documents as to the importance of Zone LED's and Block plans so that staff and fire-fighters can be given unambiguous information as to the location of the fire.
The British standard BS5839-1 states: - "even if fire panels have been certified to EN54-2 it needs to be ensured that the CIE (Control Indicating Equipment) provided has the appropriate facilities to enable compliance with recommendations of BS5839-1".
This applies to us in South Africa as SANS 10139 clearly states:
SANS 1039:2012 8.6.1
Even if the system is addressable, detection zone indication needs to be provided, as this often provides a quicker albeit less specific indication of the location of a fire than typical addressable text displays. Zone indicators also provide a simple "at a glance" overview of the extent of fire or smoke spread.
SANS 1039:2012 - 8.16.2.2
c) The form of zone indication should comprise a separate light- emitting indicator for each zone of the system(e.g. a LED matrix or illuminated mimic diagram), such that the indicating equipment is capable of simultaneous display of fire signals on every zone.
This is a case of concentration on turnover and profit by fire panel manufacturers rather than the real concern of the business they work in - life safety.
This a call to contractors to consider the consequences of the fire equipment you purchase because it is there for a reason - SAVING OF LIVES.