Hopefully, the AHJ doesn’t find out! NFPA 101 (15.3.4.3.1.2) and the IFC (1103.7.1) both require replacement fire alarm systems in educational occupancies to have voice evac (unless they have fewer than 100 occupants), even if you are just swapping the FACP.
The school is in a dinky small town (only 90 students+ 6 Teachers
Ok now a very interesting system at a different school.
It had this very Very old 1970s notifier system.
The pulls were BG-1 Notifier Rebranded.
The signals were Federal Signal VibraTone 450 horns
As well as two 7004’s that came later and some AS that replaced dieing horns
Now there is some really stupid installations and things here.
Like:
The panel was really sloppily flush mounted
The smokes were kinda falling off the ceiling.
There is one really dumb install that had a federal signal horn, and They decided to drill a back box through the horn and then placed an AS right on top of it. Kicker is both were still hooked up so that federal signal horn start arcing because it was hitting the nails, and the whole wall around it was scorched.
Plus, they also installed a as with wires exposed, And guess what the wires were coming out of, a federal signal horn, that was smashed and taken apart.
So the whole system was replaced with a new Notifier System, NFS2-3030, System Sensor L-Series Speaker Strobes, Advance outdoor, NBG-12LX’S.
Don’t worry I saved the old stuff (expect the two botched horns) and I’m making a demo board out the the panel.
(The panel is in excellent condition btw)
On to a daycare
They had this old Radiotronics Combo/Fire security panel.
The pulls were Radiotronics Tbars
And the Signals were System Sensor SpecaAlert Classics.
The smokes were System Sensor 2400.
Guess what was wrong with this panel?
Go there, 15 FAULTS on the keypad, go to the panel, and…
Rusted and corroded.
Apparently, a pipe leaked on the panel for 5 years before it was fixed and the panel was heavily damaged.
The door literally fell off when I opened because the hinges were rusted out.
That panel was junked, so it got tossed.
I replaced the smokes with System Sensor i3, and the t bars with newer Bosch ones.
The new panel was a Bosch Combo Fire Security panel.
Don’t worry I kept all the old parts for my collection, (except for the panel)
Next call
Okay a really dumb one
I went to this middle school, because they said, and I quote “Our FireEthan100 is not working”
And I was like huh?
So went there, signals were Wheelock MT’s, Pulls Were Fire-Lite BG-8
But the panel, welp
Apparently, a kid named Ethan was a fire alarm enthusiast, and the school needed a new panel because their MS-5024 got hit by Lighting.
So, this Ethan kid made a homemade panel, and yes, installed it in the school.
(Which is totally illegal)
For one thing, it was a mix of a Snap -circuit projects, mixed with random Wiring to parts, and a Raspberry Pi.
It had a 16x16 LCD display, and it said:
“thede aare yno
Fiaes”
And these spelling is intentional because this kid could not spell so programming was horrible so I just ripped the entire panel out tossed it in a dumpster and replaced it with a new Fire-Lite ES200X
Was the MS-5020 also made by Ethan? Fire-Lite never made a panel with that model number…
Is this another school with only 90 students that doesn’t require voice evac?
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I meant fire lite 5024
No, I installed a Wheelock safepath with this system
Did you install LED L-Series speaker strobes or Eluxa speaker strobes? Or did you just tie the SAFEPATH into the existing public address system and disconnect the horn portion of the MT?
The MTs were speakers strobe
Story; A criminal shoots a fire alarm
There was once upon a time when a criminal man who dropped out of college who had a gun & was trespassing into a workplace. He shot a lot of people, committed arson set off the fire alarm, shot the fire alarm and completely damaged the workplace. The unfortunate news was that this office building had a lot of damages and this guy was under arrest for the rest of his life. The police used super strong force on him so he could not shoot the police. He even threatened the police that they had to tie his legs to the point where he couldn’t move. He kicked the officers multiple times that he got shackled. His parents were dead furious at him, so much that they disowned him. As a matter of fact they had to completely upgrade the fire alarm system due to it not being up to code & a criminal offense of shooting a fire alarm. The guy was responsible to pay for all the damages but yet he refused. He’s done a lot of harm & damage towards people & objects that he has gotten kicked out of many places such as schools, restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies & doctors offices. He behaves like a child but yet he doesn’t have any disability. His parents never raised him that way but just chooses to act that way. Oh and btw this guy has tampered with multiple fire alarm systems like taking fire alarms off the wall/ceiling in buildings, breaking fire alarms, spraying at a fire alarm with fart spray and making a very loud farting sound because he thought it was funny causing the horn to stop working, dirtying a fire alarm with mud, duct taping a fire alarm strobe & horn so that they couldn’t be heard or seen but never got arrested for any of that. He even set off a fire alarm intentionally by smoking weed in the grocery store & refusing to comply with store policies. He was charged for multiple offenses
Story: Grocery Store Fire Drill (Not a test, not a false alarm, not a real alarm, but a DRILL):
There was a fire drill at a grocery store one time. This store has Simplex 4903-9238 Electronic Horn/Strobes on Continuous with no synchronized strobes and are pretty darn loud. All the customers were confused and the workers told everyone to go outside. And as an outcome of the fire drill and any inconvenience from the Fire Alarm, the groceries were Free of charge. This was only a thing the staff did that day; on normal occasions people have to pay but this time they were free due to the Fire Alarm. Nobody luckily was in a rush that day since it was a Thursday afternoon and everyone took the alarm seriously and treated it as if it were a real fire alarm. Anybody who does not treat it like a real fire alarm doesn’t get Free groceries and the workers have a good eye who and who doesn’t take the alarm seriously but they are usually pretty strict when it comes out to fire drills. The workers plan these drills but never tell the customers
It was a cold Friday night sometime in January 2020, near closing time. I was in an office building somewhere in New York State, which had a mix of devicicals.
The system was a Silent Knight IFP-2000 tied into the old Firecom 8500 system. They retained most of the devicicals on the old system which were FS DirecTone speakers with Firecom CR Series pulls without NYC Stripes.
System Sensor SRLs were installed by the speakers, and P2RLs were installed in some of the rooms that lacked notification appliances when the IFP-2000 was installed in 2019.
Faraday RMS-1T-KL and Mircom MS-710 pulls replaced some broken Firecom pulls, and in 2019, additional Silent Knight SK-PULL-SA were installed for more coverage.
Some of the original Edwards 6270B Detectors were replaced with either System Sensor i3s or 2400 series, with newer addressable Silent Knight SK-PHOTO Detectors added in 2019. Some non-functional FS speakers were replaced entirely with either EST G4F-S7VMs or System Sensor SPSRs, with SPSCWLs being added in 2019.
All of the sudden, just as I finished my night shift, the power started flickering violently and seconds later, the strobes started flashing with the L-Series horns heard doing continuous, and 5 seconds later, the eerie whooping sound heard in the WTC7 started playing through the Speakers and Speaker/Strobes. Except the whoop tone’s pitch was between what was heard at WTC7 and what was heard at Duro Dyne, no chime.
I was told by my supervisor to stay in the room. 30 seconds of alarms and violently flashing lights later, the power completely shut off, with 3/4 of the incandescent emergency lights and 90% of the mixed exit signs kicking in, and the alarms continued to sound, and unsynchronized strobes continued to flash. One employee with a history of health issues had been reported to have had a photosensitive epilepticly induced seizure from the unsynchronized strobe lights.
I looked outside the closed window and, to my absolute horror and dismay, the sky had turned an eerie shade of red and fog was rising, the window was completely covered in fog, and when I touched the window, it burnt my hand, because the rain had apparently reached boiling temperatures. I feared that the top of the building caught fire due to the rain.
I pondered for hours and hours as the alarm continued sounding. I began to grow annoyed insanely of the loud alarms, until it stopped. Some one had silenced the system, until 10 minutes later, it began sounding again, and this time, I began to smell smoke. My supervisor ordered for us to all evacuate to the basement, which was fireproof and where the FACPs were stored. We went to the basement, in there, only P2RLs could be heard. I took shelter in front of the Firecom 8500’s TTB, beside of it was the main system control interface.
I suddenly heard a loud explosion on the outside, and a second later, both the 8500 interface and the IFP-2000 started showing all kinds of system troubles, something like “Missing Devices.” Split second later, the loudest boom sound I ever heard jumpscared me so bad, as I covered my ears so tightly, I accidentally hurt them. The boom sound continued for a solid 30-60 seconds until it slowly dissipated. The P2RLs continued to sound, panels still in alarm, because battery backup. A maintenance worker on-site attempted to fully reset the system, which was successful, probably because those “Missing Devices” were destroyed, as I heard both panels start beeping with a ridiculous amount of Missing Device troubles after the reset.
The worker acknowledged both panels, and then, dead silence.
About 12 sleepless hours later, we emerged from the hot basement into an unrecognizable scene of wreckage and melted power lines.