Fire Alarms in Buildings (2.0)

Fire Alarm General Discussion
461

Obviously they probably had the Simplex 2903 visual plates on the old system, which was probably a 4002 or something. They might have had 2901-9838 horns or something simikar.

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A Simplex Wiffle Ball detector in the same classroom as the picture above. Not sure if any other rooms had these since it was the only room I was in, but I assume there are more elsewhere.


Most of the detectors are True Alarms.

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Looks like the wiffle-ball is a 2098-9636 photoelectric head on the 2098-9536 4-wire base.
Were the TrueAlarms addressable as well? It would seem likely that if they were, the system is probably now a 4100-series panel or something similar.

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There was a System Sensor SpecterAlert outside.
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Either this replaced a different weatherproof alarm, or Simplex went with this during the upgrade because back then Simplex did not make their own weatherproof signals (usually they would have used Wheelock or Federal Signal.)

462

Yes, the TrueAlarms were addressable; at least some of them had their ID’s written on the head. I also saw a Simplex 4603-9101 or similar annunciator by a door, so the claim about the panel is probably valid.

463

Right now, I’m at a Toyota dealership that was built a couple of years ago. It has an EST system, with SIGA-278s or similar, white Genisesses, and an addressable annunciator by a door.

464

Northville High School (Northville Township, MI)

Alarms:

  1. Weatherproof U-HNH horn/strobes outside–at least one of them has a yellow strobe.
  2. Most of the alarms are the older-style U-MMT horn/strobes throughout the school inside–some of them (mainly in the gymnasiums) are protected by plastic covers.
  3. In some smaller places, there are U-S30 strobes to be found.

Annunciators:
One Cerbereus Pyrotronics MXL series annunciator at the main entrance inside.

Detectors:

  1. Unknown photoelectric or heat detectors (likely Cerbereus/Siemens).
  2. Gentex smoke detectors above elevators.

Pulls:
A mix of MS-51 & MS-501 pull stations, branded by Cerbereus and Siemens. Some of them are protected by Stopper II covers.

465

Today, I was at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. To my surprise, they had upgraded most of their alarm system! This system had a fair amount of variety, and I was looking forward to taking some pictures of it, but now… :cry:

Anyway, I am pretty surprised that they upgraded system, since what they already had wasn’t too out of date.

I was able to get some pics from this system, so here’s what they have:

The system is a massive Simplex Voice Evac system.


This is a Simplex TrueAlert strobe in the parking garage. The garage also had TrueAlert horn/strobes, and there is a weatherproof Wheelock AS on the 2nd level elevator dock. (The elevator docks do not have ceilings over them.) I’m not sure if the parking garage is tied into the rest of the museum’s system (same thing with the restricted access building right above the parking garage).


Although the panel is (presumably) made by Simplex, the museum has http://hrkirkland.com Kirkland annunciators spread throughout it, a lot of them from the previous system, but I think some have been added/modified. (Has anybody known about this company?) This particular annunciator is most likely a Kirkland RSE-GR-GP3.


Some more Kirkland annunciators, located near the previous one.


Another Kirkland annunciator, located next to the previous ones. These were all by the security are, and I saw a computer in the security area running the Simplex computer software. When I was over here again a couple of hours later, it was still running, leading me to believe that it runs full time on that computer. I only got a glimpse of it, but it seemed to resemble a spreadsheet in Microsoft Office Excel.


Now, all of the pull stations in the system are Simplex Tbars. Most of them are single action, but I did see at least one dual action. A lot of them have emergency phone jacks next to them, like this one does. Prior to the upgrade, almost all of the pulls were these, but if I remember correctly, there were a couple of Gamewell Centuries that have since been removed. :frowning:


Almost all of the smoke detectors are TrueAlarms. Prior to the upgraded, there were these, in addition to other generations of Simplex smokes.


Now, most of the alarms are white TrueAlert Speaker/Strobes. Some are wall mount, while others are ceiling mount. Last time I was here (which was either over the summer or last year around this time), these alarms were only in a small portion of the museum that had been recently remodeled.


Here is a REALLY BAD picture of a Speaker/Strobe. This was on a wall where an old Wheelock(?) ceiling-mount speaker used to be. The circular wall plate is still there, but since this picture is so bad, you can’t really see it.

I was very surprised to find out that one exhibition hall on the 3rd floor has not been redone yet! What this part has is basically what the entire museum had before.


Red, rectangular Simplex Speaker/Strobes, like this one, dominated the entire museum. You can still see the equivalent of a labelscar where some of these used to be, but overall, the alarm installer did a VERY good job of removing these and putting the TrueAlerts in.


A lot of the museum had the Simplex smoke detectors that were from the '90s, much like this one.


The same detector next to a TrueAlert ceiling mount Speaker/Strobe.


This was still in the section that had not been upgraded. You can see this pull station’s ID beneath it.


Lastly, the space exhibits have red Simplex TrueAlert Speaker/Strobes. These were put in when this area was renovated a couple of years ago, which is why they are red instead of white.

Once again, I wonder why they spent so much money upgrading the system when I doubt that the system they had was out of code… :?

After the museum, I stopped by a Cafe Rio that was in a strip mall attached to a Garden Hilton hotel.


The restaurant (and probably the strip mall and the hotel) have ceiling-mount EST Geniseses. This was a remote strobe in a bathroom.

466

One more thing: There were also TrueAlert remote strobes in the bathrooms, some hallways, etc. I just didn’t get a picture of any, except for the one in the parking garage above.

467

Well, a school near my house got its system replaced, which really surprised me. The school was built in 1992, It had which i believe an Edwards 6500 system, with the newer style Edwards 10" single stroke adaptabels, and newer 270-SPOs. I would think this system would be in service longer, like the one at my school has been for almost 50 years. I have no idea on what the FAs are, but i saw a panel (or annunciator panel) where the 6500 annunciator used to be. I have no idea what company makes these:

468

That’s an EST R-Series annunciator in a double enclosure.
http://www.comsysgroup.com/resources/firedetection/brochures/R-Series%20Remote%20Annunciators[1].pdf

469

The old panel may have needed a replacement. They could have had a 4100 or something that suddenly had problems, so they replaced it with a Simplex 4100ES panel or something, then went the extra mile and replaced other devices.
Wasn’t this the museum that had a Gamewell system in one area, and Simplex in others? It is possible they wanted the whole thing to be consistent. Simplex can be like that (Bridgewater State University has all Simplex systems for their academic buildings and a couple of the doors, two of them are even older Simplex systems from the 1970s!)
That first Simplex pull you pictured is most likely from the previous system, they may have left many of them intact, and in areas only upgraded the signals and smoke detectors. I’ve seen that done before.

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470

I remembered that the Gamewell part of the system wasn’t very widespread. But after looking at my post on http://community.schuminweb.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3347&start=135 this page, it appears that it was much larger than that.

Yes, and wanting to keep everything consistent is a good reason for them upgrading, but it’s still strange that they would want to upgrade all of the devices, even if they were ADA-compliant, since it probably cost them an arm and a leg to do it all.

It’s also interesting to note how the Kirkland annunciators were labeled as “Gamewell of Colorado,” “Simplex,” “SimplexGrinnell,” and even “Cerberus Pyrotronics.”

Once again, I wish that I could’ve gotten some pictures of the old system…

471

Looks more like an upgrade to me; the firefighters’ phone jack is most likely from a Gamewell setup. Century pull stations could be ordered with phone jack plates (see data sheet picture). Gamewell-FCI | Honeywell Building Technologies

472

I didn’t realize that those were made by Gamewell. I wonder if there is a point to them now, since not every pull has one of these next to it, or even if they still work…

473

I was at a Ross today that currently does not have an alarm system. However, I think that they may be installing one. I saw a Fire-Lite MS-9200UDLS near the cash registers that wasn’t on. Furthermore, there were holes cut into the ceiling, most likely for alarms. If they are, they will most likely be ceiling-mount SpecterAlert advances. There’s also probably going to be a BG-12LX somewhere. I will see what is in place the next time that I go there.

474

Where my dad works, there are total of 5 buildings. They were all built from 1979 up to 2009, and range in square footage from 118 square feet to 778,401 square feet. 3 of the buildings are offices (2 of which are joined), computer labs, etc., 1 of the buildings is a data center, and there is 1 pump house for a small man-made lake, as wall as an a-frame building that was used as a static-free environment when computer equipment was manufactured at this site.

Due to a series of company buy-outs, management changes, etc., a huge chunk of jobs have been moved from this campus. All of the jobs have recently been consolidated into the data center and the 3rd office building, which is also the newest one (from 1985, I believe.) The two joined office buildings are now empty, old (1979, 1982), and have no purpose. So, they are being demolished. :cry:

Here are the alarm systems that I know of:

Old Buildings:
Pulls: I think that I remember seeing Notifier NBG-10s, NBG-12s, and possibly some generic metal tbars.
Smokes: Right now, they are beginning the process of demolishing the building. My dad and I went there today to buy some furniture that they were selling for really cheap prices. While there, I noticed a Notifier detector hanging from the ceiling by its wires. :shock: I don’t know if the alarm system was even on since the detector’s LED’s did not flash, and a NBG-12, which would probably by addressable was not flashing…
Alarms: Mostly Gentex Commander 1’s, but there were some areas with Wheelock MTs. Outdoor alarms are System Sensor SpecterAlert Advances (in some places, they are mounted on both stories outside - one above the other) and some weatherproof MTs. I remember that a long time ago, one of the MTs had a sign that said “Remove” on it, but I don’t think it went anywhere. :slight_smile:

Newer Building (Main System):
Pulls: Notifier NBG-12LXs
Smokes: Notifier Smoke Detectors
Annunciator: There is an addressable Notifier annunciator by the security desk.
Alarms: White Gentex Commander 1s. I also saw a Red Commander 2 or 3.

Newer Building (Lab Fire Suppression System)
There are signs that says it’s a Halon system, but I think that it has been replaced by something else. I’m not sure…
Pulls: Fire-Lite Halon BG-10s. There are 2 of these, one at each end of the lab by the exits.
Alarms: Above the BG-10s are Wheelock 7002Ts, with fire lettering. I also saw a http://jjinc24.info/collection/simplex/2901-9838.php Simplex 2091-9838 on a http://jjinc24.info/collection/simplex/4903-9101.php 4903-9101 light plate, as well as the Simplex equivalent of a ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs Faraday 6020 on a Simplex http://computek272.calvinet.com/alarmpics/2903-1.JPG 2903-1 light plate. Both of the strobes had fire lettering. Outside of the lab doors, mounted on the ceiling were non-ada strobes with Halon lettering. I’m pretty sure that they were Federal Signal strobes, though I’m not sure. They were on plastic, red plates, and were wedge shaped.

Pump Building:
There is a System Sensor SpecterAlert advance on the outside of this building.

Data Center:
Unknown, but probably a Notifier system with NBG-12LXs and Gentex Commander 3’s.

A-Frame:
Unknown. I doubt it has an alarm system.

475

Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church (Southfield, MI)

Alarms:

  1. The original alarms consisted of 411F horns (including two in one very short hallway!); only the horns in the hallway remain intact, but have been disconnected and painted over w/ white paint.
  2. The current system consists of CX series horn/strobes throughout the building.
  3. The multi-purpose room has ceiling-mount CX series horn/strobes throughout.
  4. One of the doorways outside has a weatherproof SpectrAlert Advance horn/strobe near it on a wall.

Annunciators:

  1. One National Time 502 series annunciator near a doorway.

Panels:

  1. One Fire-Lite MS series (older) panel next to the vistor entrance.
  2. One National Time 502 series panel right near the Fire-Lite panel.

Pulls:

  1. The original pull stations–surprisingly–may have been Standard 200177 models, based on paint markings in one of the rooms.
  2. The current pull stations are of the 541 series, located throughout the building.
  3. Some places, however, actually have Fire-Lite branded NBG-12 models!
476

I forgot to mention that there were 6" bells next to 7002Ts.

477

The other day, I was visiting the music buildings on an Army base. There were 2 buildings.

Building 1: Pulls: Unbranded FCI MS-2s
Signals: Wheelock MTs (the older generation with the visible screw-holes)
Detectors: Not sure of the model, but I’m pretty sure that they were ESTs.

Building 2: Pulls: Unbranded FCI MS-2s
Signals: EST Integritys
Detectors: Not sure of the model, but I’m pretty sure that they were ESTs.

478

Former Akasaka Japanese Restaurant (Livonia, MI)

Detectors:
EST 281A heat detectors throughout the tenant.

Meijer (Northville Township, MI)

Alarms:

  1. One RSS strobe in a small hallway near the front of the store.
  2. Some of the alarms are AS horn/strobes (including two in one very short hallway!); one of these is weatherproof, located in the garden center. One of the horns is wall-mount, when it actually should have been ceiling-mount (“FIRE” is written horizontally)!
  3. Most of the alarms are GX-90 horn/strobes scattered throughout the building (including restrooms!); some are flush-mount.
  4. There is at least one Advance horn/strobe in the bakery area.
  5. Above many exits, there are ceiling-mount red beacons, including some at entrances to stockrooms.

Detectors:

  1. There is an air duct detector (might be Silent Knight) near the front of the store.
  2. For some odd reason, the bathrooms in the store have these smoke detectors installed: Cigarette Smoke Detector: cigarette smoke detector hidden in household smoke detector shell

Misc:

  1. These might be the initiating devices–under several alarms and next to several exterior doors are these metal plates w/ keyholes (some of them have red and green LED lights), which, when turned, would possibly set off the alarm. I don’t know how it works, through, because I have never seen one of these. There are no known pull stations in the store, either.
  2. Several fire exits had panic bars which sound if the door is opened (unknown make/model).

Farmington Village (Farmington Hills, MI)

Detectors:
Various detectors of different types can be found throughout this condominium complex–the ones I saw were a First Alert model in an upstairs
corridor, an Altec model at the bottom of a second-floor stairwell, and an old Black & Decker squarish detector in the basement stairwell. I saw also the cover of an older First Alert detector in the basement.

479

Did you mean these?

(Photo courtesy of NewAgeServer)

They are MT4s, which are the surface mount version of the regular MTs.

480

Yes, those. I wasn’t quite sure of the model number.