High Reliability Safety Systems for Emergency Response in the Built Environment.
High Reliability Safety Systems for Emergency Response
in the Built Environment.
(176 K)
Jones, W. W.; Reneke, P. A.
Research and Practice: Bridging the Gap. Fire
Suppression and Detection Research Application
Symposium. Proceedings. Fire Protection Research
Foundation. February 7-9, 2001, Orlando, FL, 282-296 pp,
2001.
Keywords:
fire suppression; fire detection; fire research; fire
safety; fire protection; response time; emergencies;
fire detection systems; fire departments; fire alarm
systems
Abstract:
Reliable fire detection is an essential aspect of fire
protection in all constructed facilities, first for the
safe evacuation of occupants and second as a means to
initiate manual suppression for control and
extinguishment of unwanted fires. However, fire
fighting in buildings is complicted by lack of
information about the environment inside the building.
Even residential buildings (one and two family
dwellings) are equipped with detection and alarm
devices, that provide early warning for occupant
evacuaton. As technology for device interconnection,
such as embodied in the IEEE 802.11b standard, becomes
more wide spread, the capability for communication even
within residences increases and reporting such signals
over a residential network will provde increased
reliability. Most commercial and industrial buildings
have fire detecion systems that supply limited
information from detectors in the building to fire alarm
panels, generally located in a designated area of the
building. The information available today, and likely
to be available in the future in new buildings with
advanced sensors, can be used to improve the fire
service effectiveness and improve safety of the fire
fighting effort.
