In hospitals and other environments where there are infirm, incapacitated, and infectious people, it is highly desirable to specify a detection system that provides the earliest possible warning of fire.
According to Hochiki Europe, aspirating fire detection is now ‘a perfect solution’ for specific risk areas within the healthcare environment – due to the fact that the detectors are ‘over 10 times more sensitive’ than general point detectors.
The company also points out that aspirating fire detection systems ‘are not as complex as some people think’. The aspirating unit comprises an enclosure housing the electronics that are powered from a supply, and a fan inside it, that draws air in via pipes connected to the unit. The air drawn in goes into an aspirating chamber after passing through a filter. It then passes across a laser, or LED light source, projected into the air itself and, if enough smoke particles are detected, an alarm condition is activated.
Hochiki Europe said: “While the safety of people is obviously a priority, an early warning also allows time to take corrective action and avoid damage to expensive equipment. Aspirating fire detection systems are incredibly reliable, and the way they identify and react to smoke particles reduces the likelihood of unwanted alarms – minimising the likelihood of unnecessary building evacuations, and avoiding the resulting disruption.”
While it is clearly vital that fire detection systems be regularly maintained, gaining access to them within a ‘live’ hospital environment can be problematic, and if, say, one takes an intensive care unit, it is often impractical for maintenance engineers to go about their work, due the unavoidable amounts of noise and disruption generated. Likewise, isolation areas, for instance, are frequently not appropriate, or easy, for engineers to enter – for a number of reasons, not least the health and safety implications of working in a hazardous area.
“It is in these types of scenarios that aspirating fire detection has huge advantages over traditional point detection,” explains Hochiki Europe, “as detectors can be sited outside the area concerned. As the pipework contains sampling holes at predetermined locations, through which the air is drawn, all that is present in the ICU or isolation ward itself is a flush nozzle alongside a disc that houses a sampling point.
This enables a full maintenance programme to be completed from outside the ward, and, in areas where there is a high risk of infection, exhaust air is vented back into the protected space, eliminating the risk of contaminated air exiting the protected space.
With all the pipework located in areas such as ceiling voids, an aspirating system is well-suited to use in secure mental health facilities too, as it conforms to all anti-ligature regulation.”
Alongside its benefits in terms of reliability and sensitivity, aspirating fire detection technology can, Hochiki Europe claims, be ‘extremely cost-effective’, since each system can cover a wide area. The company adds: “This all adds up to a solution that perfectly suits the specific needs of healthcare estates teams, and should be considered for both new and retrofit applications.”
