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International Fire Protection Articles
Below you will find a selection of articles from our International Fire Protection magazine. These articles focus on the latest international fire protection, prevention and safety articles, including reports on firefighter equipment, apparatus and detection systems.
The primary function of any alarm system is to communicate to people that an emergency exists. The development and evolution of alarm products has been and still is highly dependent on the technologies available. Whichever techniques are used there are only five human senses through which information can be received and of these, hearing and sight are the quickest and easiest to stimulate.
The consequences of a major industrial fire can be catastrophic, potentially impacting on the business' ability to survive, workforce safety and employment, the local environment and the surrounding community.
One tends to think of fire safety in relation to building regulations and codes as an evolutionary process that developed in structure and stature throughout the twentieth century. In fact, history tells a very different story in that building regulations, (perhaps proclamations may be a better definition) in relation to fire safety, go back many centuries.
Safety is a major concern for rail operators around the world, as the implications of a major fire at a railway station, in a tunnel, or on a rapid transit system have the potential for major loss of life.
There are some 195,000 deaths each year from fire; most, of course, are domestic fires. However, the human cost can be much greater when fire breaks out in a commercial building - particularly in countries that either have inadequate fire safety regulations or the means to stringently enforce them.
Fire represents one of the greatest threats to those working either above or below ground in a mine environment. It takes little for a minor outbreak to escalate in minutes into a disastrous conflagration, so stopping a fire in its tracks has to be the top priority.
Having the right equipment in place to detect and suppress a petrochemical fire is essential, but so is having well thought out emergency preparedness plans, being in a position to ensure fast response, and having effective incident control.
The Coalition for Responsible Fire Protection began in 2010 as a healthy discussion about how to balance environmental sensitivity with the need to preserve life and property. Many large firms now expect or even demand more environmentally responsible products and systems, which will reflect and support their own environmental commitments. While small steps have been taken to "green" the fire protection industry, to date the Coalition believes it has been a mostly cosmetic exercise.
As far as fire resisting doorsets are concerned, and to borrow a line from Bob Dylan, the times they are a changin'- at least in Europe. This article sets out to explain the historic development of fire door standards, how that has shaped where we are now and what the future may hold for the industry. It looks at fire door specific testing and installation requirements in North America, Europe and countries that use their building codes, and how on-going product certification will shape what the industry uses for compliance in the future.
A new controlled-flow inert gas suppression system developed by Kidde Fire Protection reduces installation time significantly, having cut installation on a large data centre project by at least 30% when compared with ordinary inert gas suppression systems. It also resolves the problem of using inert gas suppression when only minimal pressure relief is possible.
Voice and spoken instructions greatly reduce the time taken to evacuate a building after the fire alarm has been activated.
There is a lot more to fire protection regulation than simply following the rules. Helping shape them is important; so is the sharing of responsibility in the industry.
Siemens Power Generation Group built a new gas-fired power plant at the site of the existing Emile Huchet power plant in the Lorraine region of north-eastern France. Central to the project was the provision of fire safety and security systems, recognising the pivotal role that power generation has to play in the modern world and the importance of ensuring business continuity in such critical infrastructure.
The continuing tough economic global landscape continues to put pressure on capital building programmes in both the public and private sectors. One outcome of this has been a switch in focus in many cases to refurbishing and upgrading existing premises where the additional outlay for a complete rebuild or replacement cannot be justified.
Fire resistant glazing and its role in effective passive fire protection - Simon Ellison examines the importance of system specification and best practice techniques.
Fire protection wrap systems can provide a code-compliant solution for combustible items in commercial building plenums, areas above the ceilings or beneath raised floors in which various building services are often run.
Stadia have changed dramatically in recent years, with more than 50 stadia in the world now capable of holding more than 80,000 people. As centres for entertainment, housing much more than just sporting events, stadia now host conferences, music events and corporate hospitality. With this in mind, newly constructed stadia need to be comfortable and provide areas to shop, eat and relax, and accommodate large audiences and provide comfort for corporate partners and VIPs. This can be a major challenge for civil engineers and facilities managers, who need to keep visitors happy, and more importantly, safe. Fire and safety systems need to be easy to install and maintain, as well as large enough to cope with such a sizable venue - failure is not an option.
A few eyebrows might be raised when a company that has long argued the wisdom of in-cabinet fire detection and suppression expands its offering to include a full-room, total flooding solution. But mission-critical assets come in a variety of sizes and combining the two systems can be the most effective and cost efficient solution.
Video image smoke and flame detection has made great progress over the past ten years. Advances in Technology and experiences have led to the evolution of new applications and the use of video image detection (VID) as a mainstream fire detection solution.
The recent NFPA Technical Meeting in the USA accepted a number of Standards, several of which are going to impact on the provision of fire protection.
