Around the United States and the world, there are many different unique locations which require fire protection and notification that we wouldn’t often think about. Although sometimes these places are few and far between, it’s always cool to see them, which is why I’m creating this topic. Please note that systems in “regular” buildings or systems with an unusual combination of devices should be posted in their respective topics.
Google Streetview has a few different buildings and locations in Antarctica uploaded onto Google Maps (which you can see Maps Views here). The two building interiors that they have documented both have fire alarm systems.
Here is a Pyrotronics System 3 Annunciator (the red label reads “Fire Alarm Ann”) and some sort of other panel that I can’t identify. The note on the red panel reads, “System is currently being serviced. If you have any questions, please contact the fire techs at pager…”
One around here that I found crazy was a… snow cone shack. It was a 10x10 room with an MS2, an I-3, and a PA400. I have a feeling it was only put there to have a dialer.
Now for buildings that should have a system but don’t, there are 6 firework stores near me that only have residential, single station, ionization smoke alarms. No sprinklers either!
At the county administration building, which houses the headquarters for the county police, the 911 dispatch center, and several other various departments, there is a fire alarm panel. Not unusual, typical 3 story building, constructed a couple years ago. But what’s unusual is that it has a dialer! The dialer calls a central station, which calls the 911 center, located in the same building! So they basically pay a monthly fee to have someone call them to tell them their fire alarm is going off and they might want to send some fire trucks!
i guess at the very least the central station will keep a record of it. should also notify them of any troubles and supervisory’s, or if their panel isn’t communicating.
does seem extremely ridiculous though if the 911 station is manned 24/7.
One of the more unusual places I’ve seen a fire alarm system - first the Google Map View:
What you are looking at is what they call an “Auto Berth”. It’s basically a wharf where a large cargo ship will dock and load/unload automobiles. This one is about 100,000 square feet, comprised of a concrete deck, surrounded by water except for the three lane wide road that connects it to land. There is only one small permanent building on it in the upper left corner that houses a diesel fire pump that provides pressure to standpipes along the outside edge of the wharf. There’s a fire alarm! The fire alarm consists of two pull stations, a smoke detector in the outside cabinet that houses the fire alarm panel, two pairs of sirens (mounted on light poles), and monitors the fire pump run & trouble. System is local, so even if something happens, you’re only making noise in the middle of the river and scare the seagulls. I could see if it reported back to the security building, but it doesn’t. Seems kind of a silly place for a fire alarm - you’re on a concrete deck surrounded by water!
Closeup view of the fire pump house, you can see the light poles too:
Fire alarm panel cabinet - and one serious fire pump test header!
This small building in my city has some sort of small Edwards system. All I have been able to see is 2 Edwards 270-SPOs at the two doorways, and some sort of bell inside.
Did the pump test out there a couple weeks ago (I kept meaning to upload the photos and always got sidetracked) - anyway this is what a 4500 GPM pump test looks like! And we had to cheat it a little, supposed to have 11 hose monsters and were short one.
Why would you when you can guarantee a service call from it every time it rains!
Even with a Stopper, that pull station will only last a couple of years before it needs to be replaced. About the only pull stations I’ve seen that hold up outside are the hazardous location pull stations.
