Fire Alarms in Buildings (2.0)

Neat! Thanks for sharing Robert. I’ve read a book, “Low Voltage Wiring”, and it did explain the bidding process some. I’ve always assumed that our shop drawings were made in-house and were the design, but you’ve explained that that’s not always true. The company I’m at actually does have some military base contracts; we’re a Honeywell dealer, put in about a dozen or so Notifier NFW-50x systems. Not sure if there’s a Notifier NFS-320 hiding somewhere in a heavily guarded electrical closet. I’m working on getting my NICET II, so hopefully I’ll be able to know one day and not share.

Saline Middle School (Saline) - According to an old Ann Arbor District Library construction photo, this building opened in 1971 as Saline High School, which later relocated to its current structure about a mile away. Although the alarm system has long since been modernized, there are clues as to what the old system may have been. Unless otherwise noted, all devices are rebranded by National Time.

Panel/annunciators:
Unknown, presumably a National Time 900-series panel with voice capabilities

Detectors:
National Time D900-series smoke detectors

Pull stations:
National Time 541S models

Notification appliances:
National Time SG-CXSS speaker/strobes
Some locations have National Time C3-series strobes mounted on the walls.

It is worth noting that the school still has its square Simplex double-sided clocks in place, with some spots having newer round Simplex clocks installed. Unfortunately, many of them either were not working or were off sync by several hours. This could indicate that the original alarm system was a Simplex system.

North Station/TD Garden - Parking Garage - Boston, MA
Panel: Notifier NFS2-3030, located in a closet outside of the east entrance to the Garden.
Pulls: NBG-12LX’s
Detectors: FSP-851’s


Signals: SpectrAlert Advance speakers and strobes - yes, they’re separate units.

1 Like

My guess as to why the parking garage has separate visual & audible signals is because it appears the original signals were either 2903s or 4050-80s that were most likely wired as 2-wire (so the lights & horns would pulse together), & when they redid the system they didn’t want to have to run an extra pair of wires for speaker/strobes, so they installed separate speakers instead.

You’re correct that this is probably what happened.
The original signals were Faraday 6120 or 6140 horns behind SAE A32 strobe plates.

1 Like

MBTA Red & Green Lines - Park Street
Same as JFK/UMass

MBTA Green Line - Lechmere
Pulls: RSG RMS-1T’s rebranded by Potter


Signals: Wheelock ET70WP speaker/strobes

MBTA Green Line - Union Square
Same as Lechmere. Both of these stations opened less than a month ago at time of posting.

MBTA Blue & Green Lines - Government Center
Panel: Simplex 4100ES, located in a closet on the Green Line level. There’s a Remote Command Center hidden in a cabinet at the main entrance.
Pulls: 4099-9003’s (this one appears to be from a late production run as it has the newer logo despite being a 4099-9003)


Signals: TrueAlert speaker/strobes

1 Like

Oh, had no idea that the original signals supposedly weren’t Simplex, I guess I just assumed they were. Maybe, but as far as I know neither of those horns were used commonly with V32 plates; I believe it was more common for Vibratone 450Ds or a rebrand (such as Space Age’s 2DCD) to be used instead.

Divine Providence Lithuanian Catholic Church (Southfield) - According to the congregation’s official website, its current building opened in 1973. It still has its original system, but as described below, its days are very numbered.

Old system:
The original system consists of National Time 411 horns and National Time 641 pull stations, all of which are mounted at non-ADA heights. The panel is unknown, but it is presumably National Time.

New system:
The new system is not yet powered, but I would imagine that it gets activated in the next several days due to the amount of progress that has been made. The components consist of a Fire-Lite ANN-80 annunciator, Fire-Lite H365-series heat detectors, Fire-Lite NBG-12-series pull stations, and a mix of System Sensor L-series ceiling-mount and wall-mount horn/strobes and strobes. The panel is unknown, but I’m guessing it’s a Fire-Lite ES-50X model or a close addressable equivalent.

Further evidence that the new system is going live very soon is that at least a couple of modules are hanging by their wires from new mounting boxes. Interestingly enough, every new pull station I saw still had its key inserted into the keyhole.

Glow Fish Studios (Wyandotte)
The notification appliances here consist solely of smoke detectors–three System Sensor 2312/24TB photoelectric and heat models, and one newer First Alert SA-series smoke detector.

Plaza Antiques & Collectibles Mall (Lincoln Park)
This system is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, there is a large room in the store with three Faraday OutSourced (FOS) 6227L-series horn/strobes, and I could not find them anywhere else.

Second, a larger room in the store contains two Wheelock 7002T-24 horn/strobes, one of which is gray in color and without the “FIRE” lettering!

MBTA Orange Line & Commuter Rail - Back Bay
Same as Park Street and JFK/UMass (Gamewell MS-95SD pulls and Wheelock AS horn/strobes)


MBTA Green Line - Prudential
Pulls: FCI MS-7AF’s


Detectors: ASD-PL2F’s

Signals: Wheelock MT horn/strobes

Weston Recycling & Waste Transfer Station - Weston, MA
Panel: Notifier AFP-200, located in the office.
Pulls: BGX-101L’s


Signals: Wheelock MT horn/strobes, and some older MT4-24-WM’s

MBTA Silver Line - WTC and Courthouse Stations
Same setup as South Station subway

Since I can’t make consecutive replies even if it’s been several days since the last reply, I’ll need to add more locations in an edit.
Some town buildings in Weston, MA.

Art & Innovation Center
Panel: Notifier NFW-series system of some sort (there’s an N-ANN-80 at the entrance)
Pulls: NOT-BG-12LX’s
Detectors: NP-100’s
Signals: L-Series horn/strobes

Case House (Weston Public Schools Administration)
Panel: Fire-Lite system of some sort (there’s an ANN-80 at the entrance)
Pulls: BG-12LX’s
Detectors: SD-355’s
Signals: L-Series horn/strobes

Weston Public Library
Panel: Notifier NFS2-640, located in the entrance area, installed in the location of an old graphic annunciator. This replaced a System 5000, which was located in the copier alcove. (the cabinet is still there but now has a solid door)
Pulls: NBG-10’s, one of which was replaced with a Fire-Lite BG-12L
Detectors: System Sensor 2400’s, one of which was replaced with a 2100
Signals: Wheelock MT-24-LSM horn/strobes, and WM1T-24 strobes in restrooms.

Josiah Smith Tavern
Panel: Notifier NFW-100X (most likely), given the N-ANN-100’s at the entrances.


Pulls: NOT-BG-12LX’s

Detectors: NP-200’s

Signals: L-Series horn/strobes and some remote strobes

VFW Post 345 (Redford Charter Township)

Panels/annunciators:
Unknown

Detectors:
System Sensor 2424TH thermal heat detectors

Pull stations:
First Alert-branded Sigcom t-bar models

Notification appliances:
Gentex GX-90 horn/strobes

Orlando International Airport - Orlando, FL

Airside 4
Panel: EST3X, most likely. It replaced an EST3 when the immigration hall was refurbished a few years ago. The panel isn’t in a guest-facing area, but the system does a new message. (same words, new voice and tone)
https://twitter.com/BrianWestbrook/status/1403469974300155904
Pulls: SIGA-278’s


Detectors: SIGA’s

Signals: Genesis speaker/strobes and remote speakers in most areas, and Integrity speaker/strobes in the entry lobby, and a few 960-series speaker/strobes here and there. The Genesis speaker/strobes replaced most of the 960-series (round Integrity) speaker/strobes a few years ago, and more remote speakers were added.



Main Terminal Building
The panel is a regular EST3 - it could be seen in the background in a video I found somewhere.
The initiating devices are the same as airside 4, but the signals have more variety. The check-in lobby and east security checkpoint have Genesis strobes and separate ceiling-mount speakers (Genesis speakers in areas with an open ceiling, generic 8-inch speakers in areas with a drywall ceiling.) The food court has Genesis strobes and 960-series remote speakers.
The in-terminal Hyatt hotel still has the old initiating devices (FAST-branded FCI MS-6 pulls and System Sensor detectors), but the old Wheelock speaker/strobes have been replaced with Genesis speaker/strobes.

I don’t remember sharing this system in the Fire Panel Forums but i guess I could
This is the Moda Center in Portland, OR (Home of the Trailblazers)
The system is some Siemens panel. Either its a MXL or a XLS.
The pull stations



The notification appliances:


Yep. Those are Wheelock E70s. Your eyes is not fooling you.
In a another building i found Wheelock NSs




:
Now this building was built in 1995 and its on it second system. I wondering if there was a older system that came before this one. The devices are too new to be apart of the original system. If anyone has a clue what the old system was. I would be interested to know.

Walt Disney World - Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, FL

Post 1 of 2 - This post will focus on resorts.
Note that many of these resorts have mini-horns in the individual rooms, even if the common areas have speaker/strobes.

Caribbean Beach
This is a multi-building resort. The guest room buildings are small enough to not have any system other than the standalone smoke alarms in each room.
Main Building
Panel: Siemens Desigo Fire Safety FV-series (most likely), installed during a 2018 refurbishment.
Pulls: HMS-S’
Detectors: OP921’s


Signals: Wheelock E50 speaker/strobes (rebranded)

Riviera
Panel: EST3 - there’s an annunciator behind the front desk.
Pulls: SIGA-270’s


Detectors: SIGA-PD’s

Signals: Genesis speaker/strobes and remote strobes inside…


…and Integrity speaker/strobes outside, even though this building opened in December 2019.

Contemporary
Bay Lake Tower
Panel: EST3, unknown location.
Pulls: SIGA-270’s or SIGA-278’s


Detectors: SIGA’s…

…and one SIGA-PD.

Signals: Genesis speaker/strobes

Convention Center
Panel: Pyrotronics XL3 (most likely, as this building opened in 1991)
Pulls: MSX-2’s (most likely)


Signals: Wheelock EHS-DL1 horn/strobes

Main Building - This is one of the most varied systems I’ve ever seen, thanks to countless building modifications. Despite this being a 14-floor building, it doesn’t have voice-evacuation in most areas. What kind of Mickey Mouse operation is this?!
Panel: A two-panel Siemens setup with an MXL (which replaced a System 3 sometime in the 1990’s or 2000’s), and an XLS which was added sometime around 2015 or so. (These setups are officially supported by Siemens. You can tell the system has 2 panels thanks to the 3-part address labels, such as 1-11-21.)
Pulls: MS-151’s in most areas, and possibly some MSI-10B’s.


The monorail platform area has rebranded RSG RMS-1T’s.

Detectors: DI-6’s on the 1st and 2nd floors…

…DI-3’s on the 3rd and 4th floors…

…and OP121’s on the room levels. (The room levels also had DI-3’s or DI-6’s before the refurbishment.)

Near the DI-3’s on the 4th floor there are also some Chemetronics heat detectors which are probably disconnected.

Certain areas like the arcade have FirePrints.

Signals: The few non-refurbished areas (3rd floor and Chef Mickey’s) have Wheelock MT-24-LSM horn/strobes and some current-generation MT’s.


The lobby and arcade have Gentex Commander 3 horn/strobes.

The room levels have Siemens-branded Wheelock Exceder LED horn/strobes, which replaced Gentex GX90S mini-horn/strobes.


The monorail platform has Wheelock ET70WP speaker/strobes.

The 2nd floor (where the ballrooms are) has no signals at all - however, there is a sound system which is probably linked to the panel.

Polynesian
Main Building
Panel: Siemens Desigo Fire Safety FV-series (most likely, given the size of the building)
Pulls: MS-51’s in most areas (one of the covers had clear glass, and the pull was an MS-51 not an MS-151)…


…and rebranded RSG RMS-1T’s in the monorail station, which was redone in 2021.

Detectors: OP921’s (which replaced PE-11’s)…

…and some Xtralis OSID beam detectors in the lobby area.

Signals: Gentex SHG horn/strobes in most areas…

…some Commander 3’s in some of the restaurants…

…and Siemens-branded Wheelock ET70WP speaker/strobes in the monorail station.

Grand Floridian
Main Building
Panel: EST3 - there’s an annunciator behind the front desk. This system was installed around 2012 and replaced the original system from 1988.
Pulls: SIGA-270’s in most areas (which replaced Gamewell Centuries, according to old pictures I found online)


…and rebranded RSG RMS-1T’s in the monorail station.

Detectors: SIGA’s

Signals: GC-series and G4-series speaker/strobes and remote strobes - installed in 2020, replacing the original Wheelock E-90XX-WS-24 and E-70XX-WS-24 speaker/strobes and WST-24 remote strobes. Some areas also had regular Genesis speaker/strobes.



The monorail station has WG4 speaker/strobes.

Villas
Panel: EST3 (most likely)
Pulls: SIGA-270’s


Detectors: SIGA2’s

Signals: Genesis speaker/strobes and remote speakers

Wilderness Lodge
Copper Creek
Panel: Siemens Desigo Fire Safety Modular, unknown location. This was installed around 2020, and replaced the original MXL from 1994.
Pulls: MSI-10B’s in one half, HMS-S’ in the other.



Detectors: FirePrints (and possibly some old ID-60P’s) in one half, OP921’s in the other half.


Signals: Wheelock E70 and E50 speaker/strobes, all rebranded.

Boulder Ridge - UPDATE: SYSTEM DEFUNCT
Panel: Cerberus Pyrotronics MXL (location unknown)
Pulls: MSI-10B’s


Detectors: FirePrints

Signals: S-LP-series speaker/strobes

Beach Club
Main Building
Panel: Siemens FireFinder XLS, unknown location. This was installed in 2011, replacing the original system from 1990.
Pulls: HMS-S’


Detectors: FirePrints. According to old pictures I found online, the original system had DI-3’s or DI-X3’s.

Signals: Wheelock ET-1070-WS-24 speaker/strobes…

…one ET-1070-LSM-24-VFR speaker/strobe rebranded by Cerberus Pyrotronics…

…and some E70’s rebranded by Siemens.

I’ve heard this system in action back in 2015. It does code-3 (rather odd to hear this from non-ADA-compliant speaker/strobes) and the default message.

Villas
Panel: Cerberus Pyrotronics MXL, located near the service elevator on the 1st floor.


Pulls: MSI-10B’s

Detectors: FirePrints

Signals: S-HP-MCS speaker/strobes…

…some rebranded E70’s…

…and one non-rebranded E70.

BoardWalk
Panel: Cerberus Pyrotronics MXL, location unknown. What I previously thought could have been a different type of panel years ago turned out to be a bulletin board cabinet.
Pulls: MSI-10B’s


Detectors: ILP-1’s…

…and at least one FirePrint.

Signals: Gentex SPK4 speaker/strobes

Some have been replaced with SSPK24WLPW speaker/strobes.

Animal Kingdom Lodge
Jambo House
Panel: Cerberus Pyrotronics MXL (location unknown)
Pulls: MSI-10B’s


Detectors: FirePrints

Signals: Gentex SPKE4 speaker/strobes…

some of which have been replaced with SSPK24-75WW…

…and SSPK24WLPW speaker/strobes.

There’s also a random Wheelock ET-1070-LSM-24-VFR speaker/strobe…

…and some Siemens-branded E70’s.

Kidani Village
Same as Contemporary (Bay Lake Tower)

Westland Historic Village Park (Westland) - This place is a property of several antique buildings that were relocated here over the years and turned into walk-through exhibits.

Most of the buildings are equipped with System Sensior i3-series smoke detectors, but there are some notable finds I discovered while walking through the park:

<The Gutherie Octagon House still has a vintage ESL 1025C smoke detector mounted and functioning.
<The Eloise Hospital Museum at the Rowe House has the remnants of a vintage piezo smoke detector (make/model unknown) still mounted on the ceiling, an antique brass Gamewell bell, and two vintage explosion-proof red lights, the latter two of which were once used on the Eloise property.
<The Carriage House has an antique, cast iron, and oval-shaped Gamewell fire alarm pull box lying on the concrete floor.

Adding to this, California Grill has ceiling mounted ZNS horn/strobes rebranded by Siemens and a few ZRS strobes too.

Oh boy, I got a intresting system for ya’ll l.
Vancouver Mall (Vancouver, WA):
The main mall:
Panel: Unknown, probably a Simplex panel of some kind.
Pull Stations: Unknown
Signals:
A Very odd mix
System Sensor SPSCWs


System Sensor SPSCWL: not pictured
System Sensor SW: Not pictured
System Sensor SCR: Not pictured
System Sensor SCW: not pictured
System Sensor Spectralert classic: not pictured
Gentex Comander 4:

Gentex SHG: not pictured
Simplex 4904s


Detectors:
System Sensor i3s
Simplex TrueAlarms
Simplex 2098s
Round1:
Panel: a NFS-320 or NFS2-640 with DVC.
Annunciater: Notifier FDU-80

Signals:
System Sensor PC2WLs: not pictured
Wheelock LED3 Exceeders:

Detectors:
Notifier FSP-951s.

Macy’s:
Panel: some Notfier panel between 2003-2006
Signals: Spectalert Classics




Detectors:
Notifier FSP-851s

JC Penney:
Signals are advances and the panel is probably FireLite

Blockquote The Chapman Middle School was built in 1961 as a vocational high school, before being repurposed as a middle school much later. It has a pretty cool “modern” architectural design. It still has its’ original Gamewell FlexAlarm system intact, though!
The alarms I saw were what appeared to be old Federal Vibratone 350 horns, installed on trim plates. The original pulls are Gamewell Centuries, and they had Stopper II covers installed over them.

Well, that school has been undergoing a massive reconstruction project for a few years now. Much of the original 1961 campus has been demolished, except for the gymnasium wing, which is being renovated. A beautiful new state-of-the-art middle school campus is taking the place of the old structure. But what’s unique in this is case is the fire alarm system being utilized. Usually when such a school construction project happens in the Greater Boston area, they go with an EST voice-evac system. But here they bucked the trend and went with a Simplex voice evac system! And that’s not all; going from the photos online, the new system has TRUEALERT ES SIGNALS! These are really rare in the Greater Boston area, as usually they go with conventional TrueAlert signals, even if the Simplex system they’re on is addressable (and it usually is). It appears the norm is the lobbies and corridors and any larger areas having white Simplex TrueAlert ES speaker/strobes, each one with a TrueAlert ES remote amber “ALERT” strobe mounded underneath (no doubt as part of a new lockdown system or something). Classrooms have white ceiling-mount TrueAlert ES speaker/strobes and “ALERT” remote strobes. They also have Simplex TrueAlarm detectors, probably 4098-9714s. I didn’t see pull stations in any of the pictures, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they went with addressable dual-action T-bar pulls (i.e. the 4009-9006). The panel is obviously a Simplex 4100ES.

The way Weymouth went with a Simplex system for the rebuilt middle school greatly surprised me, as I was expecting them to go with EST as well, like when they built a newer elementary school and also expanded and renovated their high school at one point. But several of the other elementary schools already have older Simplex systems in place, as I mentioned before (mostly 4208 systems, if the panels hadn’t been replaced yet, usually with 4051 horns on 4040-60 light plates). Maybe that’s why they’ve started using Simplex again? (The other middle school building that once housed fifth and sixth grades had their Simplex 4208 system from 1974 fail at one point, so they replaced it with a Fire-Lite or Notifier system of some kind with SpectrAlert Advance horn/strobes.) I know Atlas Alarm Corp., a local fire alarm service company that once serviced Brockton’s school district’s fire alarm systems, was once based in Weymouth, but they’ve since been folded into the Arlington-based American Alarm and Communications Co., and for a while they continued servicing the Weymouth schools.

2 Likes