One of the most diverse systems that I’ve encountered was the old fire alarm system at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Although I’ve made multiple posts about this system on the website, they’ve pretty much all been buried, pruned, or unsearchable for some reason. So, I’m choosing to post this system again because it would fit well in this topic and personally stands out to me.
Originally established in 1900, this museum has gone through countless renovations and expansions and I’m sure has had many different fire alarm system overhauls and upgrades as well. Since I have not been alive for most of that time and only visit this museum once every few years, I can only give a limited perspective into just some of the changes their system has went through.
Using information from this post I made six years ago and my memory, here was the museum’s system from ??? up until around 2011:
Notification Appliances:
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Gamewell-rebranded Wheelock Speaker/Strobes with non-ADA strobes
This is a screenshot from a video of the museum from 2009. The speaker/strobe is the white first white circle above the sign -
Gamewell-rebranded Wheelock Remote Strobes (in bathrooms) - I have no idea what specific type of alarm that would be, I’m just going off of the information from my old post
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Simplex Rectangular Speaker/Strobes
This is my picture, from 2012. In 2009, around half of the Notification Appliances in the museum were these alarms. Although the rest of the system’s notification appliances had been upgraded by the time I took this picture, one exhibit still had some of these “old” signals left. -
Simplex “Single Gang” Remote Strobes (this type)
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Simplex TrueAlert Speaker/Strobes
Another picture which I took in 2012. This particular exhibit did actually have these signals in 2009, before the other parts of the system were upgraded. -
Simplex TrueAlert Horn/Strobes
Another 2012 picture. These signals were/are only located in the parking garage -
Simplex TrueAlert Remote Strobes
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Located in various locations outside, Wheelock AS’s, MT’s, and System Sensor SpectrAlert Classics.
Pull Stations:
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Gamewell Century Pulls with the firefighter telephone jack plate (as seen here)
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Simplex Single-Action T-bars, most likely the 2099-9795
Smoke Detectors:
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System Sensor 2400 Series (don’t know how accurate I was identifying what the smokes were, however. There were probably Gamewell smokes from the 80’s or 90’s in the system as well)
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This style of SimplexTrue Alarm Smokes
Other:
- There were/are Kirkland graphic annunciators located in various locations throughout the museum and outside every exhibition hall. These did give some hints at the history of the system as each graphic annunciator had the brand of an alarm company on the part of the annunciator with the building/exhibit layout. According to my 2009 post, the brands listed on these various annunciators included Gamewell of Colorado, Cerberus Pyrotronics (this was most likely installed during the time that CP owned Gamewell), Simplex, and SimplexGrinnell. All of the annunciators are still there, but are now all branded by SimplexGrinnell.
From the 2009 video, showing one of the graphic annunciators at the entrance to an exhibition all.
One of my pictures from 2012 showing the graphic annunciators.
I’m not sure what the panel was in the “2009” system. My guesses back then were that the panel was a Simplex panel (since an increasing amount of the system seemed to have been “taken over” by Simplex) or an older Gamewell panel tied into a Simplex one, or maybe even something else.
In 2011, the system went through a massive overhaul, with all of the old Gamwell/Wheelock devices being replaced, in addition to all of the rectangular Simplex Speaker/Strobes (except for the ones still left in the previously mentioned exhibit). According to my 2012 post about this system, here’s what everything was upgraded to:
Notification Appliances:
(In addition to all of the TrueAlert devices mentioned above, as well as the rectangular Speaker/Strobes still left in that one exhibition hall):
- White Simplex TrueAlert Speaker/Strobes
[i]This 2012 picture shows one of these alarms in a spot that used to house either a red rectangular Simplex Speaker/Strobe or a white, circular Wheelock Speaker/Strobe with a non-ADA strobe.
Pull Stations:
- Simplex Single-Action Tbars (with some dual action ones thrown in), most likely 4099-9001’s.
In this picture from 2012, you can see one of these pulls mounted on the old Gamewell Century FireFighter’s phone jack plate.
Smoke Detectors:
(In addition to the older TrueAlarm detects mentioned above)
- The current style of Simplex TrueAlarm Detectors
Again, from 2012
Additional Information
- According to the Museum’s Contractor Handbook from 2010 for the General Contractor doing the fire alarm upgrade:
A fire alarm is announced by a rising tone from low to high frequency, with a short period of silence after each tone. When the alarm sounds, the Denver Fire Department is already enroute to the Museum and Security is investigating the cause of the alarm. When a fire alarm is activated, you will hear several tones and the announcement: “May I have your attention please. What you have just heard is a fire alarm. Please stand by while an investigation is made into the nature of the alarm.” The tones will then resume.
During this period, a Security supervisor will be investigating the situation. This information will be provided to the fire units, who will respond to the area of the alarm. At this time, the fire chief will make the decision whether or not to silence the tones. When Security has been given the all clear by the fire department, the following announcement will be made: “May I have your attention, please. We have resumed normal operations. Guests of the Museum may return to their enjoyment of the Museum at this time. Thank you.”
If an evacuation is warranted, you will hear another announcement: “This is Museum Security. Everyone please evacuate the building at this time. Walk immediately, do not run, to the nearest stairs and proceed to the first floor, then use the nearest exit to leave the building. Do not use the elevators. Follow the instructions of Museum personnel as they direct you during the evacuation.”
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My visit in 2012 was the last time I was at this museum, so I can only guess what’s changed since then. I still am disappointed that I never had the opportunity to take pictures of the “old” system at this museum as I remember being so interested by it. Although this was definitely not the most random or mixed up system, it still did have quite a bit cool of variety in it.
One final note: <URL url="System With Most Variety]Here’s[/url] a similar topic to this one that we had in 2009, if anyone is interested in reading information about more odd systems.