Why Spend Money on a Fire Alarm System Upgrade?

The Great Chicago fire of 1871 opened eyes to the danger of fire spreading quickly and killing masses of people. The fire was detected quickly and communicated by telegraph, but fire fighters were initially sent to the wrong place.

An alarm sent from near the fire did not get registered with the watchmen, with the resulting delayed response allowing the fire to spread very rapidly, eventually resulting in 300 deaths and over 100,000 people displaced.

The 1911 fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was the worst fire in the history of New York City, with 146 garment worker deaths. The factory was on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of what is currently known as the Brown Building. Stairwells and exits were locked to keep workers from taking unauthorized breaks.

The person who held the key to the exits escaped without unlocking any doors, leaving only a flimsy fire escape that eventually collapsed, dropping about 20 people to their death on the street below.

The only warning occupants received was a phone call from the eighth floor to the tenth floor. There was no way to warn the ninth floor, so those people received warnings at about the same time the fire reached their floor.

LESSONS LEARNED
These two historic fires helped shape current fire codes, as experts learn from each tragedy and codify those lessons to help increase overall safety.

The main takeaways from the Chicago fire are to use non-flammable materials during construction and ensure fast, accurate reporting of fires when they break out. Mistakes and delayed reporting of the Chicago blaze only added to the amount of death and destruction.

The main takeaway from the shirt factory fire is the importance of unobstructed exits and early reporting of fires so people can evacuate. 

Have the lessons been learned? Partially, but some key things have been forgotten and it seems reminders are needed so history isn’t repeated.

Our engineering firm has evaluated over 140 high-rise buildings in Hawai’i for fire safety and discovered some of the same hazards exist here that were found in the Triangle factory, like fire alarm systems partially or completely disabled, locked areas impeding building exits, and stairwells loaded with storage that make passage difficult.

A new fire alarm system won’t clear storage out of a stairwell, but it can unlock building doors and provide advance warning to units so occupants can escape before flames rage out of control.

TECH ADVANCEMENTS
Fire alarm systems used to be clunky and wiring-intensive. The bells used for occupant notification were big – and ugly – but could not be heard in many areas of the building, especially in bedrooms.

Addressable systems started taking the place of bell systems in the 1980s and reduced fire alarm wiring by about 50 percent.

In an addressable system, each initiation device (such as a smoke detector or fire pull station) on the system has its own electronic address. The control panel communicates with each device to make sure it is actively connected.

When an initiation device is activated, the panel will know exactly where the device is in the building and will initiate certain protocols that include building evacuation and notification of the fire department.

Today’s systems are very similar to the addressable systems of the ‘80s in function, but as with all electronics, they have become smaller and more reliable.

SYSTEM TYPES
There are two possible types of systems required by current fire codes for residential condominiums. Buildings less than 75 feet in height from the top floor may have a horn system that warns occupants to evacuate. Buildings 75 feet or higher are required to have a voice evacuation system.

The systems function similarly and initiation devices, such as a smoke detector or fire pull station, will immediately set off a general alarm. The signal must be audible and intelligible in all occupiable spaces of the building.

The voice evacuation system will play the alarm over a speaker along with an evacuation message, which can be overridden to manually speak to the occupants. This feature is useful for directing residents away from hazards that may be along the evacuation route and can also be used to announce an all-clear signal or make general announcements.

WHY UPGRADE?
You may say, “Why should we upgrade our existing bell system for this fancy new technology? Isn’t our system grandfathered?”

Your system may very well be grandfathered, but if your old bell system stops functioning there are very few companies that will repair it. If your system is dead and no one can repair it, you will be forced to spend $800 to $1000 per day for a fire watch until the new system is installed and tested by the fire department.

This process takes more than a year to complete, which means you’ll spend $300,000 on fire watches alone and will still need to buy a new fire alarm system.

The fire alarm system is an essential safety system in your building. It is the key to early evacuation in the event of a fire and can save lives.

If your building was built before 2000 and has not had an upgrade, your system will likely not be audible in all required areas of the building, so there is a good chance sleeping occupants will not be aware of a fire occurring while they sleep. You can have a licensed engineer perform an assessment of your current system to determine if occupants would be able to hear the alarm in the event of a fire.

History shows early warning is the key to saving lives and property. Installing a new fire alarm system is the best way to accomplish a heightened level of fire safety and minimize the risk of fire-related casualties.