Training
Fire Hydrant Systems - Principle of Operation
In a building, a fire hydrant system is a safety measure or emergency equipment required in some buildings that comprises a series of components that when assembled together provide a source of water to assist fire authorities in a fire.
Putting it another way, a fire hydrant system is a water supply with a sufficient pressure and flow delivered through pipes throughout a building to strategically located network of valves for fire-fighting purposes.
Defect rectification and reporting
Australian Standard AS1851:2005 A2 provides for the first time a framework for defect reporting for fire protection systems and equipment that has not been previously defined.
The criteria for defect rectification and reporting appears in Section 1 - Scope & General, with specific criteria detailed in Clause 1.15.4 - Defect rectification and reporting.
When the Standard was originally written, the definition of both a 'Critical Defect' and 'Non-critical Defect' was omitted from the definitions found in the Standard. Subsequently in Amendment 1 and Amendment 2, the definitions or examples were established.
Heat Detectors - Principle of Operation
The third instalment of the Principle of Fire Safety series looks at heat detectors, one of the four methods of detecting fire through the the by-products of combustion. This is an area of fire safety that has been rapidly evolving over the last 20 years.
Research and development has improved well established detection technologies and provided an array of new technologies to improve fire detection while also being less susceptible to the causes of false alarms.
Before we go any further it?s important to lay the foundation for what is fire; fire also known as combustion is a sequence of exothermic chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidant accompanied by the by-products of combustion being; heat, smoke & electromagnetic radiation (light). Personally I think a illustration explains this chemical reaction in terms easier to understand.
It is also important to recognise that smoke is an aerosol or mixture of particulates suspended in air that comprises a collection of airborne solids, liquid particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion.
This is important because each of the four detection technologies are designed to respond to one of the three by-products of combustion. There are four principal methods for detecting fire explored in this article including; Heat, Smoke, Flame and Combustion detectors.
Fire Alarm Systems - Principle of Operation
Rarely in the movies do you ever see a Fire Indicator Panel (FIP), more often than not you will see an American style 'pull station' - the equivalent of a Manual Call Point or Break Glass Alarm found in Australia.
A Fire Indicator Panel (FIP) is probably best described as the 'brains' of a fire detection and alarm system. A fire indicator panel comprises control and indicating equipment (c.i.e) that combined together form an integrated system. These core components comprise;
Five types of Smoke Detector!
Recently I updated our internal training module titled "Smoke Detectors 101". These training modules are available only to Maintenance Essentials employees and official Partners.
Each of these training modules are bite sized and designed to be easily read in about 30 minutes.
This article is an extract from this training module...
