Fire Protection Systems - Essay Example

Fire Protection Systems Introduction Over the years, USA has suffered huge losses and deaths for its citizens due to rampant fires. This has led to many fire protection engineers to carry out researches on the causes of fire and thus they are making great efforts to find the best way to prevent fire and tools to mitigate the damages resorting from fire. The major causes of fire are human activities and natural calamities. In order to prevent the rampant fires the engineers are educating people on importance of safety and being responsible (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). The engineers have designed various mechanisms and equipment that will help detect fire within the shortest time possible and fire protection systems. The government is enforcing this move and thus buildings are required to abide with the fire codes to limit huge losses brought by fire while reducing number of deaths caused by fire. Fire protection systems should be cost effective to ensure majority of the citizens can afford them. They should also be efficient to enable the users are able to stop fires as fast as it is detected. The systems should be easy to use and should be checked and repaired often thus limit the chances of malfunctioning incase fire is detected (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). The purpose of this essay is to enlighten the citizens on the different types of fire protection systems. The essay will enlighten people on the effectiveness and efficiency of each system and give clear information on reasons behind using different systems to deal with different types and location of fire. Fire alarm system Time taken to notice fire is the most important factor in determining the success of any fire protection system. This is also the first thing that determines the damage the fire will cause. Fire alarm system was invented to ensure fire is detected as soon as it begins or even before it begins. Over the years, fire alarms engineers have tried to modify their detectors to ensure a fast and effective way to identify and alert people in case of a fire. Fire alarms systems relays on control panels to annunciate alarm in the occurrence of a fire. Before 1998, most people used the traditional fire alarm panels (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). Conventional control panel ensured that the fire detectors were connected to a single alarm. The alarms would detect smoke/fire then send the message to the alarm. This move was not effective since after the alarm one had to identify the location of the fire. The conventional control panel was not suitable for large buildings since it was expensive to buy wires to connect the detectors with the single alarm (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). This led to the invention of addressable fire alarm control panel that was digitalized. Addressable fire alarm system were cost effective and ensured better identification of the alarm location thus limiting time wastage unlike in the conventional system. Alarms in this system use digital encoding thus can communicate to different channels. This method sends fire alarms to fire brigades and to the people in the building (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). This ensures fast extinguishing of the fire. Addressable fire alarm system use automatic detections that detect smoke, heat increment and light radiations. When any of the three are detected, the fire alarm annunciates the message. Smoke detectors are used in this system and the major types of smoke detectors are ionization, photoelectric and combinations. Ionization smoke detectors are commonly used and they are able to detect minimum smoke and are used to detect fire emanating small particles. Photoelectric on the other hand detects smoke emanating large particles and can detect fire using light obscuration principle (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). These are the mostly used fire alarm devices and they can help stop fire from spreading or mitigate the damage due to their time efficiency to alert people even in the slightest sign of fire. Since fire alarm is a very important component in fire protection system it has many devices but the most commonly used are discussed above thus it is appropriate name the other devices that are used to alert people on a fire incidence. These devices include; beam detectors, air-sampling detectors and thermal detectors (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). Water-based suppression systems Fire protection system ensures that after fire detection of fire, one has to use the most suitable way to extinguish the fire. Most of fire protection systems began with water as the main commodity to extinguish fire. The method used to suppress fire has changed as time passes. In the 19th century, people splashed water to suppress fire but currently sprinkler systems have emerged. The sprinklers have rapidly developed and most people use currently automatic sprinklers (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). The automatic sprinklers are built by combining the knowledge used in fire alarms to detect fire thus after fire is detected the sprinkles releases water to cool the fuel surface of thus suppressing fire. The sprinklers use piped pressurized water hence the pipes must be connected with a dependable source of water. Most buildings install the sprinkles to mitigate damages. Although sprinklers are mostly used, they can only suppress small fire and they are only effective to extinguish fire involving solid fuels. This makes sprinklers effective in offices and is climate friendly (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). Most fire brigades adopt this system using fire hose reels since it is effective even in open locations unlike using gaseous systems that are effective in closed rooms to ensure oxygen is reduced. Fire brigades use high-pressurized water to suppress fire and the pressure is applied according to the intensity of the fire. To ensure that pressure is maintained fire brigades the location of the fire should be accessible since taking too many turns will reduce the pressure thus ineffectiveness of this fire protection system (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). This method used by fire brigades is effective to stop fires in closed and open locations but it is criticized since it may cause more damage than the fire since it floods the location of the fire damaging documents on the process. Gaseous fire suppression systems Noting that water based fire suppression systems is only effective on solid fuels it is wise to cover other systems that can be used to extinguish fire on liquid and gases fuels. Gaseous fire suppressions system involves the use of gases that do not support combustion. Carbon dioxide is the major component in portable fire extinguishers (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). When sprayed on the source of the fire it reduces the oxygen levels to a level that cannot support combustion. This method is only effective in closed environment with limited ventilation to ensure oxygen levels are reduced. This method is criticized as it may lead to suffocation of the person using it due to reactions that lead to formation of carbon oxide. The use of CO2 also leads to global warming. The use of inert gases is the safest to use and have no side effects. Inert gases that include nitrogen are used to displace oxygen and thus suppress fire (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). Although using inert gases is advisable, the inert gases combined with halocarbons react thus forming dangerous gases. The gases tamper with the ozone layer leading to global warming. Foam or chemical fire suppression systems This system uses foam combined with water to flood the burning location expanding over the fire while snuffing the liquid hence suppress the fire (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). In the past, fire engineers did not have a way of combining the form and water from a single nozzle thus the system was hard to apply. Later inventions led to the discovery of how to use a single nozzle that regulates the pressure of water and foam density that was effective to extinguish fire. This discovery has made the use of foam to suppress fire at a fast rate compared to other systems. The nozzle works at interchanging rate where one have to switch on and off the control to ensure better result when extinguishing fire from liquid fuels (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). The system is commonly used in places where flammables are stored for instance in refineries and in heliports. The use of foam fire suppression has been effective so far and thus the limited number of fires in these areas as compared to other locations in the US. Dry pipe system Unlike the water-based system, this system uses installed pipes that are empty since they are used in very cold areas and stored water will condense thus making it ineffective to use when handling fire. Water is only supplied to the pipes when the system is in use. The dry pipes contain pressurized oxygen or nitrogen, which allow water to open the valves in order to flow in the pipes (Kleane & Sanders, 2007). This system extinguishes fire in places with documentations for instance libraries where the use of water-based system will cause more harm. This system faces critics for time wastage to respond to fire but it is credited for being effective to put out fire with no damage incurred. Conclusion From the essay, it is clear to note there is every system has its advantages and disadvantages. This proves that no system is better than the others are since every system is effective than the other under different locations and types of fires. It is also evident that not all the systems use environmental friendly substances thus everyone using them should ensure they are safe from reactions of gaseous system. This will ensure safety for the person putting out the fire and mitigate the damages likely to be caused by the fire. It is also wise for the fire brigades to offer education to the public to ensure that people are able to use them when they are required. Failure to do so will only put the lives of the public at risk when trying to use the different fire protection systems. Builders are also advised to ensure all buildings are installed with the different devices that will help extinguish fire within the buildings. This will also ensure that buildings are accessible in case the fire brigades are called upon to extinguish fire. Good building sites will ensure the fire brigades are able to suppress fire easily as the pressure of the fire hose reels is affected by inaccessibility of the premises on fire (Kleane& Sanders, 2007). Fire engineers are also advised to invent better gaseous systems that are eco-friendly; this will reduce emitting gases that will lead to more calamities in the future. Lastly, it is our responsibility to ensure safety by not being negligent and arrogant when handling fire hazards. We are also required to ensure we learn to use the available fire protection systems we have and ensure they are checked regularly and repaired when need arise. Reference Kleane, B. J., & Sanders, R. E. (2007). Structural fire fighting: Strategy and tactics. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett. Read More