I agree with both your statements: save everything related to each device.
Glenn James (Old School Fire Alarms) is like that.
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It’s the one near the prison.
Ok, yep, I know where that’s at. Haha
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The main hospital in my city had an electrical room fire last year, so they had to close it for repairs. As part of this, they upgraded to a completely addressable fire alarm system! Before that, it was only a semi-addressable system; a networked Simplex 4100 with quite a few different Simplex panels across the building, even a couple of voice-evac 2001s still in use as auxiliary panels to cover the non-renovated areas still using conventional devices! Said areas largely had 2902-9712 LifeAlarm speakers on 2903-9002 light plates, 4251-20 single-action pulls, conventional TrueAlarm smoke detectors, a few of the old 4259-36 detectors installed with the 2001, a few replacement 2099-9754 and 2099-9756 pulls, a Wheelock ET speaker replacing a failed LifeAlarm… One area renovated in the early 1990s had 2902-9732 LifeAlarm speakers on 4903-9102 light plates, 2098-9201 smoke detectors, and 4251-20 pulls. Several areas renovated in the 1990s had 4903 speaker/strobes, mostly horizontal ones, though one wing had the vertical versions. At least a couple of those areas had 2099-9795 single-action pulls, and one of them had 2098-9201 smoke detector heads on addressable MAPnet bases, while other renovated areas had addressable TrueAlarms, and the emergency wing and the blood lab had 4099-9003 dual-action pulls.
Unusually, a couple areas actually used horns: the radiation therapy wing had Space Age 2DCD+AV32 horn/lights, and the family suites wing had TrueAlert horn/strobes!
I got to hear this system in action once; the areas with the LifeAlarm speaker/lights did the old 2001 chime tone, and the emergency wing with its’ 4903-9150 speaker/strobes sounded a Code-3 version of the old 4100 chime tone! The light plates flashed on 90bpm March Time.
Now they’ve been upgrading to a Simplex 4100ES voice-evac system. The areas renovated in the 2000s have largely the same devices, while the other areas being fully renovated now have TrueAlert speaker/strobes (most likely 4906-9151s) and what appear to be 4099-9006 dual-action pulls with the LED indicator.
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I’m glad their existing system at the time was able to prevent anyone from getting injured in that hospital. Seeing how big that hospital was it definitely overcrowded and overwhelmed nearby medical facilities that got backed up when it shut down. Although I wonder if they did get rid of the older light plates since the whole place was under reconstruction.
Looks like they did get rid of the old light plates, unfortunately. But at least it’s for the best; when I saw the old system in action, the 4903 speaker/strobes were a much better visual attention grabber than the 2903 light plates. And now the whole hospital will have actual ADA-compliant strobes.
I guess they went with the conventional TrueAlert speaker/strobes so they don’t have to deal with upgrading to IDNAC circuits, especially since the areas renovated in the early 2000s are still keeping their 4903 speaker/strobes, and this is a direct upgrade from a Simplex 4100+ to a 4100ES system.
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At the botanical gardens in my city, the main building there has a Notifier NFS panel, and in the older part of the building, the pulls are BG12s that are branded Notifier Fire Systems. The NAs are all Spectralert classics, there are ceiling mount spectralert classic speaker strobes, and in the corridors there are wall mount remote strobes and then above them a bit, there are spectralert classic remote speakers. In the atrium, there are spectralert classic remote strobes on the walls, and on the ceiling there are remote ceiling speakers. In the newer conservatory area, there are spectralert advance speaker strobes, and bg12s with the current branding. Next time I visit, I will get images.
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Seems like it’s a strobe plate or light plate… A red standard horn can be seen inside the small grilles
Annapolis High School (Dearborn Heights, opened circa 1967) - I used an unofficial Facebook page of the high school to identify some of the devices.
Annunciators/panel:
Original system - Unknown, presumably a National Time and Signal Co. (Natsco) 2000-series model
Current system - Unknown, presumably a Natsco 900-series model
Detectors:
Current system - Natsco D900-series smoke detectors
It is not known if there were any detectors in the original system.
Pull stations:
Original system - Unknown, but judging by wall scars, Natsco Type 3500N break-glass models. It appeared that the old pull stations in the gymnasium had those large protective cast-iron covers Natsco was known for back then.
Current system - Natsco 541S models (rebranded Sigcom t-bars)
Notification appliances:
Original system
- Unknown, but judging by a wall plate at the Athletic Entrance and the year the school was established, Natsco Type 411 horns.
- At least two Natsco P806 class change bells survive and are presumably still used.
- In Google Street View, there are at least three bells still installed; two of them are Natsco P808R or P810R models behind grilles, while the third is what I believe to be a Natsco-branded Faraday 10" bell from the 1990s, replacing an original bell. Also, that third bell is missing its recessed grille.
Current system
- Natsco C3 and C4-series horn/strobes and strobes through the building
- One Natsco SG-CWPHS75Z weatherproof horn/strobe next to the Athletic Entrance
cool. models almost correct but not nrx as its mostly likely not wireless. (nrx is wireless range). The wired models are Nfx-opts and the call points are m700wcp/wcp5a/w5a.
MBTA Orange Line & Haverhill Line - Malden Center - Malden, MA
Pulls: Cerberus Pyrotronics MSI-20B’s and some Siemens-rebranded RSG RMS-1T’s
Signals: SpectrAlert Advance horn/strobes.
Some have been replaced with L-Series horn/strobes.
There’s also a Siemens U-MCS-WP strobe outside.
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I’m guessing that the outdoor strobe was probably just forgotten about in the upgrade. Either that, or they just disconnected it and decided to not have an outdoor device on the new system.
It has an inspection sticker so it’s definitely still connected.
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It’s base cover is really chipping off and looks rusted. I wonder how that strobe still works.
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Today I made a K-O the Kangaroo appearance at the Northeast Sports Card Expo 2024, held at the Marriott Boston hotel in Quincy, MA! They have a Simplex voice-evac fire alarm system with many devices original to the hotel’s 2001 construction intact; I didn’t see the panel or any annunciators, but it’s obviously something in the 4100 series.
The alarm signals I saw were a mix of red 4903 speaker/strobes (mostly horizontal) and white ceiling-mount TrueAlert speaker/strobes (the latter were mostly in the main lobby, renovated some time after the hotel was built). The pull stations are Simplex addressable 4099-9001 T-bars (several of them have trim plates), and the smoke detectors are Simplex addressable 4098-9714 photoelectric TrueAlarms.
This evening I had to buy synthetic motor oil for my car, and since the Advance Auto Parts I go to was closed due to computer issues, I went to the nearby O’Reilly Auto Parts that moved into part of the space where a Stop 'n Shop supermarket once was (they had a 1990s FCI system with Space Age VA4 horn/strobes and MS-2 pulls). The store now has a Siemens system, with Wheelock Exceder ceiling-mount LED horn/strobes and XMS-D pull stations! I thought this was pretty cool to see, and a refreshing change from the rather un-unique (IMO) Wheelock ZNS horn/strobes and RSG T-bar pulls Siemens had been using since the infamous lawsuit. This is likely the first place in Brockton, MA to have the X-series pull stations (I had previously seen them at the Boston Convention and Exhibiton Center last year).
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The Langham Hotel - Boston, MA
This used to have an FCI system, but it was refurbished a few years back so I thought I’d scout it out and see if anything changed. Sure enough, things have changed!
Panel: Autocall 4100ES, located in the security office at the employee entrance.
Pulls: A4099-9006’s
Detectors: TrueAlarms
Signals: TrueAlert speaker/strobes
This system was probably installed by NSG Life Safety. There is an office building (One Post Office Square) adjoining this hotel and it also now has an Autocall system, so both buildings may be on the same system.
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I’ve noticed that Autocall is becoming quite common in my area. For some reason, I have yet to see them use TrueAlert ES devices.
ES devices are expensive. Likely won’t buy them if they aren’t getting a cost / time benefit from doing so. In small buildings, addressable notification probably doesn’t make too much sense. In a larger building like a school or hospital, especially where a bypassed device is more critical to be alerted of, that’s when you’ll more likely see them used.
Beyond addressable, ES of course has the self-testing benefits, but that’s again, not too beneficial for smaller properties.