Background
Hispec were contacted by a member of the National Fire Team for HMPPS as they had an urgent requirement to upgrade their incumbent battery standalone smoke alarm fire detection system. Their fire risk assessment had highlighted an ‘intolerable risk’, that when a smoke alarm was activated in a cell, the Prison Officers at night in the office, could not hear it.
Project Scope
The project scope included the following key objectives:
- To ensure every cell had an interlinked alarm that was audible in the office once activated.
- The installation process should cause minimum disruption to the residents who would be in situ during the installation and minimise any noise pollution.
Challenges and solutions
This project presented several technical challenges, including the wide variety of substrates across the establishment, the layout, the requirement for the alarms to be fully interlinked without the use of hard wiring, and the distance between the furthest cell and the office where the prison officers are based. In addition, the overall scale of the installation was significant, with a large number of alarms required to be installed as a matter of urgency, with minimum disruption.
Solutions
To overcome these challenges Hispec recommended the use of the HSA/BP/RF10-PRO smoke alarm containing a sealed 10 year lithium battery, with inbuilt radio frequency technology. The solution eliminated the need for hard wiring, whilst providing a reliable 10 year solution.
Up to 30 alarms were paired using radio frequency across a mesh network. This could be completed off site prior to installation, ensuring robust communication between the alarms across long distances and varying substrates, significantly reducing the time on site and minimising disruption within the establishment. As a result of this pairing when one alarm is activated, all alarms sound, guaranteeing that alerts are clearly audible and enabling a rapid response from the Prison Officers.