Bismarck Hotel- Bismarck, ND
(In the 60’s, this may have been an extremely large and luxurious “resort”, but it is now extremely run down and the system reflects that.)
Panel- Most likely a Simplex 4002 but it may have been upgraded without any of the devices being changed
Notification Appliances- Simplex 2901-9838 horns on 4903-9101 strobe plates
Pull stations- Simplex 4251-20’s
Smoke Detectors- mostly Simplex 2908-9201 smoke detector heads on 2098-9211 bases but there are also some replacement conventional TrueAlarms
Heat Detectors- I saw some Edwards heat detectors in the bathrooms. (This is not a sprinklered building)
Issues- This place has so many that I had to make a list.
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This system has some extreme notification appliance coverage issues. Many of the rooms have no signals (including the huge indoor waterpark). The rooms that do have signals have very few for their size.
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Many of the signals look to be in poor condition or are blocked. For example, I saw a projector screen in front of one of the signals in an event hall.
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One of the heat detectors in the bathroom was hanging from the wires.
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(Not really fire alarm related but still life safety related.) Almost all of the exit signs in the building were either very damaged, did not work, were completely wrong, or were just completely missing from the back box.
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There is almost no emergency lighting in the building. The stuff that is there looks extremely damaged and old. Im guessing they work just about as well as the exit signs.
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There are very few exits.
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The lighting is very poor. There are quite a few windows, but I’m guessing that it would probably be very dark during the night.
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This is a HUGE building with hundreds of rooms. The building is not sprinklered and has a very lacking fire protection system overall.
This whole building definitely just needs a complete overhaul. Not only are the life safety systems very lacking, but the building is just very behind on maintenance overall.