St. Mary’s Cultural Center (Livonia, MI)
Alarms:
The only sort of alarms in this building are found inside the panic bars at the fire exits; the building has no full-fledged fire alarm system.
Well, I went to the mall tonight to do some shopping and guess what? The mall is undergoing ANOTHER upgrade!
From left to right we have a covered up EST Genesis signal and on the ceiling, we have an existing smoke detector, a covered up EST Signature smoke (old old kind, not the new kind shown on the EST website), a PA speaker and a classic SpectrAlert horn/strobe. While these devices aren’t active yet (at least I home they aren’t), down by the movie theater there are devices that seem to be active:
A Genesis horn/strobe and dual-action pull.
An annunciator, which I’ve discovered is for the http://utcfssecurityproducts.com/ProductsAndServices/Pages/IO500GD.aspx iO panel series.
As you head towards the food court and the other end of the mall, you come across these:
Cut out areas of wall with fire alarm wiring inside. It seems that in this case a new signal will be added and a new EST pull will probably replace the existing ADT pull. There are no cut-outs on the ceiling, which leads me to believe they haven’t gotten that far yet with the pre-installation job. Pretty soon, the mall will be all EST. Also, the stores are NOT being retrofitted with devices, which explains why they chose to install a small addressable system, since it just covers the mall. I haven’t been into the movie theater yet (the box office is outside and I was afraid of getting caught going in without a ticket) and there’s no more pics online, so it’ll take more time before I figure out what’s in there. And just as a bonus:
The Wheelock RS that’s been in the men’s room since the '90s. The restroom has been rennovated and obviously they just put up sheetrock around the alarm as opposed to having to re-mount it. And finally…
The Spectronics annunciator at the renovated entrance.
That’s a pretty cool annunciator. Does it have an LCD? Looks like it. I checked Spectronics’ site for info, but you have to be a distributor to login to their “Distributor Extranet” so you can actually see their products.
Bagger Dave’s (Novi, MI)
Alarms:
The only alarm here is a MT4 horn/strobe in the kitchen.
Yes, it has an LCD screen, and it’s also in trouble mode, odds are due to the rennovation work.
Meanwhile, on the same night I went to the mall, I stopped by a Staples nearby that I haven’t been to before. The pulls are Fire-Lite BG-12s, the horn/strobes are Gentex Commander3s (IDK if I’ve seen one used for fire alarm signalling before) BUT the remote strobes are SpectrAlert Advances! A very odd mix, you’d think they’d go with one company or the other for all the signals.
Fresenius Medical Center (Chesterfield Township, MI)
Alarms:
- AS horn/strobes throughout the building (one in the lobby, another next to an exit in the back, etc.).
- RSS strobes throughout the building (one in the foyer, one inside the reception office, etc.).
Detectors:
i3 series heat detectors throughout the building (one in the lobby, etc.).
Panel:
Fire-Lite MS-5210UD panel (foyer).
Pulls:
Fire-Lite branded NBG-12 pull stations (one next to an exit in the back is non-ADA compliant[mounting level]).
Went to an art museum in an old house today (weird, right?). Anyway, here’s the alarm system (with pics)!
Simplex 4100 w/Voice control features
This is weird - right above the speaker-strobe is a remote strobe. Any ideas why they did this?
Simplex Tbar w/Simplex keypad
Simplex Tbar with Simplex speaker strobe
Another speaker strobe
This museum had a lot of smoke detectors - you can see 4 in this shot alone.
A Simplex security thing
A tbar that had its fire lettering painted over
I was at a Safeway with a rather odd alarm configuration today.
Near the door, there was an addressable Simplex annunciator. Behind the customer service desk was a Simplex tbar, most likely addressable, as well as a QuickAlert strobe (either that, or one of the TrueAlerts without the TrueAlert branding). On the ceiling, there were http://smup.us/12 Simplex 4904-0009 remote strobes scattered around the ceiling. Next to some of them were Simplex QuickAlert (or TrueAlerts without the TrueAlert branding) horn-only units (the wall version, not the ceiling version).
Today, I found an interesting site, where the government of my province had done a condition assesment of all the schools in Ontario in 2003-2004. On the site, there is a portfolio for every school, with description of the building construction, the mechanical and electrical systems, including the FA systems. There is also pictures along with the portfolios. I was looking through the assesments of the schools in my city, and I was surprised to see most of the schools had these old edwards panels installed in them. Here is an example of one of the schools:
-Here is the Edwards panel that was installed in the school, and was installed in most of the other schools. I have no idea what the model # is, I know it’s an Edwards though.
-One of the pull stations in that school, and older 270-SPO.
-The FAs, Edwards 10" Adaptabels.
I also downloaded some pics from the other schools, there are panels and FA’s I couldn’t identify.
-Unknown Edwards Panel
-Unknown Panel
-Some old IBM panel
-A Simplex 2001 panel
-An unknown panel
-An unknown horn
-And this is an IBM 6" bell. This pic was at a school I’ve been to before, and as far as I know, these bells and the FA system is still intact.
For me, this site was quite a discovery. I found out also that most of the FA systems were Edwards (no surprise there), and sorry for the small pictures.
I REALLY wish those pics were enlargable; I would have LOVED to have seen detailed views of the old panels. As for that IBM bell, first off it’s odd that it’s black (more than likely spraypainted that color), second, it doesn’t look like any 6" IBM bell I’ve ever seen - the bell looks to be mounted in the middle of the mechanism, while http://www.dan.calvinet.com/IBM_4015-6A_13.JPG most have the bell mounted off-center (the mechanism itself is oddly shaped too - 4.5" x 5.5").
Yeah, I can’t really do anything about it, i’ve tried. The panel to that school is what I think A Cerebus Pyrotonics, so it could explain the bells, idk. I thought it might have been an IBM bell because of the label.
Also, I have another picture, from a school in my city:
-You can see a ceiling mount strobe, a pull station, a Wheelock bell, and The thing beside it, which is what I’ve been trying to figure out what it is for a long time. It was in the older side of the school, it was beside all the fire alarms, except the one, which had an Edwards 6" adaptabel beside it. It looks like a horn, It has a striped grille, and has a metal plate inside it, like this drawing I drew:
I think the horn might be a National Time fire horn. Especially since the pull nearby looks like a National Time pull.
Number one, I would be very surprised to see a National Time system installed in a Canadian providence, considering that National Time primarily has a presence across Michigan (where the company is headquartered). I will admit, though, that the pull station definitely looks like it could be identical to a 641, if not the exact model.
Number two, I am a little skeptical that the fire horn is manufactured by National Time; I assume that you must be referring to the 411F, but the 411F has a different grille design on the front (see Firefly’s avatar). Plus, the 411F extends outwards in length a little more than the fire horn pictured in the photo.
I could be wrong, though; I have never seen a fire horn like that before, so this notification appliance must be very rare.
Yeah, that school has national time “T-bar” pulls, like the one in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKfYT4qmGGM this video by newageserver, in the older wing. The fire bells are Wheelock 6" bells, and that horn in the picture was supposedly used for a class change bell. I have no idea on the panel. I hope I could go back to that school one day and get a closeup pic of that horn.
The horn actually appears to be a buzzer (it looks like an Edwards Adaptabuzzer from the side, but the Adaptabuzzer doesn’t have a grille). I am quite surprised to see National Time and Signal equipment here in Ontario; I didn’t even know they had ULC listed fire alarm devices. BTW, the first unknown panel (grey one with the door open) in the series of pictures is an EST 6616 while the ancient red unknown panel is an old Simplex model. Really interesting finds!
Providence Park Hospital (Novi, MI) I have already covered a couple of buildings in this complex; one building has National Time equipment and the other has Simplex. This post will cover the original 1992 building, which has an interesting mix of old and new.
Alarms:
- The original system consists of LifeAlarm speakers on ceiling and wall-mount 4903-9101 strobe plates (they have a green sticker on the strobe).
- TrueAlert strobes can be found in renovated parts of the 1992 building.
- There are these white, ceiling-mount circular speaker/strobes that I don’t think I have ever seen before and there is no company or model ID.
Detectors:
- Simplex detectors (the one computek had at his middle school) throughout the building.
- Some of the detectors have been replaced with TrueAlarm detectors.
Panels:
- 4100 series voice-evacuation panel in the outpatient entrance.
- Two 4009 series power extender panels next to the 4100.
Pulls:
2099-9795 pull stations (some behind Stopper II covers) throughout the building.
Last weekend, I went to the Diefenbunker (4 level underground bunker used as emergency government headquarters during the Cold War, now a museum) on the outskirts of Ottawa where I took a few pictures of the devices. They have a pretty interesting system along with older disconnected devices.
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Fire%20Alarms/?action=view¤t=IMG_6359https://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg&newest=1
White SpectrAlert Advance ceiling-mount horn/strobe. These were installed sometime in the past year (previous system used speakers).
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Fire%20Alarms/?action=view¤t=IMG_6363https://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg&newest=1
Older Edwards Adaptabel. Judging by the tag, it is no longer in use.
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Fire%20Alarms/?action=view¤t=IMG_6367https://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg&newest=1
Gamewell Century pull station.
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Fire%20Alarms/?action=view¤t=IMG_6385https://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg&newest=1
Gamewell Century pull station with bilingual lettering.
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Fire%20Alarms/?action=view¤t=IMG_6422https://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg&newest=1
Red SpectrAlert Advance horn/strobe with EOLR.
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Fire%20Alarms/?action=view¤t=SANY0099https://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg&newest=1
Gamewell branded Amseco bell in the Guard House.
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Fire%20Alarms/?action=view¤t=SANY0097https://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg&newest=1
Old yellow Gamewell panel (also in the Guard House).
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Temporary%20Uploads/?action=view¤t=IMG_6357https://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg
Many pull stations were missing and the firefighters’ phones had been painted over.
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Fire%20Alarms/?action=view¤t=IMG_6429https://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg
It’s not a fire alarm, but I thought I’d include it anyway; a CLM omnidirectional siren.
The following pictures were taken at the same place two years ago (before the system was upgraded).
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Fire%20Alarms/?action=view¤t=simplex4050diefenbunkerhttps://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg
Faraday horn.
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Fire%20Alarms/?action=view¤t=halonpulldiefenbunkerhttps://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg
Mirtone halon release pull with a ziptie.
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Fire%20Alarms/?action=view¤t=CPSystem3diefenbunkerhttps://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg
Disconnected Pyrotronics of Canada System 3.
http://s804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/Chupacabra_1/Fire%20Alarms/?action=view¤t=MircomFx-1000ehhttps://cdn.thefirepanel.com/legacy/3092_6fd21bb48ddcf136c9e6c757ef70e19b.jpg
…and finally, a Mircom FX-1000. This panel was replaced with a Mircom FX-2000 during the upgrade in the past year.
Wow; very nice finds in that museum.
Box Bar & Grill (Plymouth, MI)
Alarms:
SpectrAlert classic horn/strobes throughout the building (including restrooms! :shock: ).
Pulls:
Fire-Lite branded NBG-10 pull stations throughout the building.
Actually, they would just be called BG-10s since Fire-lite is the company that actually makes them.