Re: 3 Wire Smokes?

["Robert L Bass" <no-sales-spam@bassburglaralarms>]

>>> There's no such thing as a fire prevention
>>> company.
>
> If you compare and contrast futures of a
> typical burglar alarm system versus a
> typical fire alarm system, and the words
> detection versus prevention, I think
> prevention is more valid for fire alarm
> systems.

With all due respect, Roland, how many
fires do you suppose the average fire alarm
system prevents?  I would say the percentage
is less than that of burglaries which a burglar
alarm prevents.  Think about it for a minute
(Cracker will need several days).  It's safe to
say that some thieves decide not to burglarise
a particular place because there's an alarm.
A certain percentage stop and retreat upon
hearing the alarm.

Fire neither knows nor cares if there's an
alarm.  It consumes whatever it can,
regardless of the existence or activation of
a fire alarm.

> Other than say a man trap on an access
> control system there is little "prevention"
> offered form a burglar alarm system,
> mostly it is for detection.


> A fire alarm system can not only detect fire,
> it can offer "prevention" of sorts.  A fire
> alarm system can be designed to close
> doors (like in nursing homes and hospitals),
> close dampers, turn off air handlers, recall
> elevators, and even activate fire suppression
> systems like Ansul or other chemical fire
> retardant chemicals in a computer room, or
> communications closet for example...

This may be more a matter of semantics, but
IMO those are all responses to a fire once
detected -- not prevention of the fire in the
first place.

> Although that might not "prevent" the
> actual fire from starting, it can help to
> slow or even "prevent" the fire from
> spreading...

Certainly suppression systems can well,
suppress a fire but in most cases the
suppression system activates the fire alarm
-- not the other way around.  Even an Ansul
system is usually activated by heat rather
than an alarm system.

Fire doors and dampers close or, in the case
of exterior doors, release upon alarm first to
prevent the spread of smoke and to speed
egress of persons on the premises.  They can
slow the progress of fire but in the absence of
a sprinkler system they don't usually stop the
eventual spread of the fire.

> How fine a point you want to put on
> prevention is up to the individual to decide.

Perhaps, but I dislike the use of misleading
terminology in the alarm industry.  For example,
there used to be a character in Hartford who
called his alarm company the "Alarm Agency of
Hartford County."  Technically, one could call
an company an agency but the way he phrased
it was a deliberate attempt to mislead. Apparently
it wasn't all that effective though.  He went out of
business many years ago.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

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