If anyone is wondering what the Empire State Building’s fire alarm sounds like, I found this video of it in alarm: TikTok - Make Your Day
The system at the Empire State Building is a Siemens FireFinder XLS.
The title of the video seems like someone’s coat got caught in a pull station (the pull would be an HMS-M, which is quite common in NYC.)
The HMS-M is the addressable Siemens version of the Faraday F1GT.
The building also has a few Cerberus msz1’s ( rebranded gamewell m46-33 )
Do you know what fire alarm system the building used when it opened in 1931?
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If you were on the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building and evacuation was necessary, you would have to go down 1,836 steps to reach the first floor which can take around 20 minutes to get to the lobby level to go outside.
However usually only 5 floors would have to be evacuated so this would be a lot quicker.
Absolutely not, but it was probably some really old coded system.
The people who designed/worked on those systems have probably passed away many years ago.
I heard from someone that they used to have an MXL at one point.
This makes me wonder, if the Twin Towers were still up, if they would have kept their MXL system, or “updated” it to an XLS, or maybe even switch away from Siemens.
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I’d think they would more likely upgrade to an XLS system since it’d be easier than replacing with with a different brand. It’s possible the Empire State Building would have used the MXL back in the 90s just like the twin towers did.
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They may have gone to full firecom since that is what they installed in the new wtc. IDK though.
They would probably still have the mxl since the mxl is very common in ny because buildings like the bank of america tower have the firecom 8500 or the willis tower has an est 2 and a mxl and the fargo tower has an mxl too because the bank of America tower still has the firecom 8500 and didn’t switch to the life safety net
Bank of America tower does not have a Firecom 8500 or any Firecom systems before and currently, all 8500 systems have been replaced and are not in service anymore
Anyways heres some photos inside the empire state building, it did have a MXL before
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It looks like there is a system 3 cabinet there as well.
MXL’s often use System 3 cabinets to house EL-410C or EL-410D amplifier cards. (the ZAC-30 amplifier card, on the other hand, mounts only in a regular MXL cabinet.)
Amplifiers in a System 3 cabinet: https://www.instagram.com/p/B2FNkZihgWK/
Amplifiers in a regular MXL cabinet (note the ventilation grilles): https://www.instagram.com/p/Co0IfHDJaEu/
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