Fire poses a significant risk in the workplace. Especially, when we consider work environments, such as construction sites, chemical laboratories and factories, the potential fire safety hazards are many. If we look at the statistics an average of 59 Indians are killed every day due to fire. In fact, fire accidents take away more lives than any natural calamity or disasters.
Given these alarming statistics, workplaces have increased their thrust on fire preparedness and are considering advanced fire detection and alarm systems. Fire equipment with ease of use features are also being demanded by organizations.
Advanced fire alarms today are equipped with individual smoke detector sensitivity adjustment and drift compensation. Fire alarms with maintenance-needed indication feature are also gaining popularity. Many products coming to the market today are equipped with multiple abilities. They just don’t detect smoke, but also have the ability to detect heat, carbon monoxide and infrared light from flames as well. These features help reduce the possibility of nuisance alarms as more than one criteria needs to be fulfilled to trigger an alarm and shorten the time required to detect the actual fire.
Wireless technology is transforming every industry and fire safety industry is no different. Wireless smoke detector systems are rapidly gaining popularity.
Another technology that is seeing a surge in demand is voice annunciation as it allows danger to be announced with a pre-recorded message. Voice alert systems are set to become more popular as people have an increased reaction to voice instructions as compared to simple sirens.
With integrated building systems gaining momentum in residential and commercial complexes alike, the industry is looking at defining the rules as to how fire alarms and detection components will work when they are integrated with other building systems. For instance, if there is heavy traffic on the LAN, the system should be able to identify and give priority to fire alarm signals.
Also, the role of fire alarms and detection components is set to expand as they become integrated with other building systems. For instance, sensors used for controlling lighting in a room can be used in cases of fire to see if a room is occupied or not. Firefighters can then use this information to rescue in a speedy manner by eliminating unoccupied room.