Here is a quick clip I took when they were testing the fire alarms at my high school during lunch
[quote=wiley209 post_id=79020 time=1518918955 user_id=47]
The Campanelli Stadium in Brockton MA, which is home to the Brockton Rox baseball team (which I am a part-time mascot performer for) had a fire alarm upgrade of sorts recently. The stadium was originally built in 2001-2002 with a Notifier AFP-100 system, with LCD-2X20 annunciators located in the office entrance vestibule and right in the office itself. The alarms are Wheelock AS horn/strobes installed in many places, even in restrooms, and they are LOUD. The pulls in the office area, the souvenir shop and the locker rooms and such are Notifier NBG-12LXs, and the smoke detectors are FSP-851s. In the concourse sections and the corridor below (i.e. to get to the dugouts, locker rooms and such) there are weatherproof NBG-12 pulls and a few Fire-Lite -branded BG-12s that are presumably replacing Notifier pulls that failed, along with some Chemtronics 601 heat sensors and at least one replacement System Sensor 5601 heat sensor.
During most of last year, the AFP-100 system was having numerous problems, and so last month they finally replaced it. The LCD 2X20 annunciators were also replaced with new Notifier FDU-80 annunciators. I haven’t seen the new panel yet, but I am pretty sure it’s a Notifier NFS-320 or something. Everything else is still the same, not surprisingly.
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UPDATE: The new panel is indeed a Notifier NFS-320. Another difference I noticed is that when they had the AFP-100 system, the NBG-12LX pulls blinked red, but now they blink green due to the NFS-320 having the FlashScan feature. And yes, the pulls are the originals from when the stadium was built (they have the older “NOTIFIER Fire Systems” logo on them.)
My workplace is a 3 stored building. In each floor alarms are installed. They are siren type alarms.
I have a summer internship! Here’s the system there.
9 Hamilton Place - Boston, MA
Panel: Fire-Lite system of some sort, judging by the ANN-80 annunciator
Pull stations: Edwards 270-SPO at the entrance, Kidde B5’s everywhere else.
Detectors: Chemetronics heat detectors
Signals: Gentex SHG horn/strobes
The one near the entrance is slapped onto a Simplex 4050-80 light plate. :roll:
Well at least they replaced the 4051s with another horn that can have different pitches.
They probably originally had a Simplex system, then they upgraded to a Kidde system in the early or mid-90s, and now they have the Fire-Lite panel.
Seeing that SHG on the 4050-80 light plate reminds me of the former Rainbow store near my college campus that had Gentex GMS horn/strobes slapped onto Simplex 2903 plates, but they kept the Simplex 4251-20 pulls. The panel was probably a Fire-Lite system of some kind. Then everything came out when it got converted to a Planet Fitness, with an Advanced-brand voice-evac system with Gentex ceiling-mount speaker/strobes (like the GMS, that speaker/strobe is is another rare alarm for my area, so it beats just going with System Sensor or Wheelock alarms.)
Speaking of my college, I’m still wondering what fire alarm system changes may be occurring this summer. The only ones I know that are planned are to install Stopper II covers over the pulls in the Student Union (there have been quite a few false alarms caused by someone’s backpack catching onto a pull station and setting it off), and eventually replace the Faraday MPC-7000 system in the Liberal Arts and Humanities buildings (they’ll most likely go with a Notifier NFS2-640.)
[quote=wiley209 post_id=81018 time=1531700892 user_id=47]
They probably originally had a Simplex system, then they upgraded to a Kidde system in the early or mid-90s, and now they have the Fire-Lite panel.
Seeing that SHG on the 4050-80 light plate reminds me of the former Rainbow store near my college campus that had Gentex GMS horn/strobes slapped onto Simplex 2903 plates, but they kept the Simplex 4251-20 pulls. The panel was probably a Fire-Lite system of some kind. Then everything came out when it got converted to a Planet Fitness, with an Advanced-brand voice-evac system with Gentex ceiling-mount speaker/strobes (like the GMS, that speaker/strobe is is another rare alarm for my area, so it beats just going with System Sensor or Wheelock alarms.)
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That same set up also reminds me of my third and last elementary school having a couple of Faraday Light Plates (similar to JTD321’s but flipped upside down with no fire lettering on the sides) with Wheelock MT-WM horn/strobes, one Gentex GOS horn/strobe, and one Wheelock AS horn/strobe slapped onto the plate. The rest had Faraday 5640 horns. Outside same with with the 2903s, except there was one GOS and the rest had 2901-9806 or Faraday 5640s on them. The light plates in question looked like this (sorry if it’s too blurry).
Those are the light plates I christened the “Faraday 5415” because it is HIGHLY unlikely we’ll ever find out the name out it.
Came back to my school for junior orientation and they have these blue-strobed Siemens/Wheelock signals (both ceiling and wall mounted) installed around the school. I have no idea if these are in places like classrooms but do you all know what they might be used for?
They also are installed outside near any entrance door.
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After a quick search I found information on Blue Point Alert systems.
Based in what I read, I theorize the blue strobes are part of a new lock down emergency warning system.
[quote="Retired STR-SG" post_id=81283 time=1533676477 user_id=3047]
After a quick search I found information on Blue Point Alert systems.
Based in what I read, I theorize the blue strobes are part of a new lock down emergency warning system.
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Oh that’s cool. I know about BluePoint and I’m sure these alarms would function similarly. There aren’t any other pull stations in the building besides the traditional fire pulls and the Mircom door pulls, so it must only be able to be activated via the front office.
(EDIT: I recall the strobes originally being amber with blue covering paper on the first two installed in the Forum. They must have changed that or they put a coloring over them, since they seem less shiny than some of the other ones.)
Hola…
So the east building of my high school has speaker/strobes now, as well as the original fire alarm N/As. I’m gonna assume that the alarm model number is SET-MC-CW-ALERT (Siemens). These, along with the remote speaker varient are installed in the hallways, classrooms, bathrooms(!), and other spaces. The only place I saw the remote strobes were in small office/meeting rooms around the building. I have no idea if they’re ridding the old Simplex fire alarms, as some have been replaced by wall-mounted SETs.
Siemens smoke detectors and pull stations were also installed around, so this has to be tied in with the original FireFinder XLS. If that’s the case I might see speakers and speaker/strobes installed in the other building too, replacing the ZHs.
We have the Emergency Drills Wednesday so I’m not sure if the speakers will go off or the horns will, or both. LMK what you guys think if you had past experience.
The blue strobed Wheelock/Siemens alarms are in fact installed in the other building and the staff center. They arent in the classrooms though, but ones with exit doors might have them.
(Note: I’m on mobile rn so im not sure if the image is too large, so if it is feel free to resize it)
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[quote=idontwannaknow post_id=81332 time=1534197316 user_id=3956]
I have no idea if they’re ridding the old Simplex fire alarms, as some have been replaced by wall-mounted SETs.
Siemens smoke detectors and pull stations were also installed around, so this has to be tied in with the original FireFinder XLS. If that’s the case I might see speakers and speaker/strobes installed in the other building too, replacing the ZHs.
We have the Emergency Drills Wednesday so I’m not sure if the speakers will go off or the horns will, or both. LMK what you guys think if you had past experience.
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From what you’ve described, it seems that the new system is done and probably will be used during the drills.
Are the old pull stations and detectors still intact? If so, they’re probably going to be removed soon. Why not ask the school administration for the old alarms?
Sorry, I don’t collect fire alarms, I’m just interested.
Secondly, there are some areas (for instance, the enterence, the pool, and the gym) that still don’t have them, but visable backbox holes are seen. The connecting hallway between the buildings also only has speakers, although the computer labs on this hall seem to have their stuff straight. (That was where I saw the first SET in one of the rooms, it surprised me and I thought they were only gonna used for the labs and Auditorium, I was wrong)
And like i said, all the original Simplex stuff (TrueAlerts, 9846s, and -9105 strobes like the one seen in the picture) is still intact, along with pulls and smokes, so I was wondering which ones would be used.
[quote=idontwannaknow post_id=81334 time=1534203082 user_id=3956]
Sorry, I don’t collect fire alarms, I’m just interested.
Secondly, there are some areas (for instance, the enterence, the pool, and the gym) that still don’t have them, but visable backbox holes are seen.
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Then the new system is probably still being finished up, so the old system is (hopefully) still active for now.
I work at Koorsen. There are no set alarms at work.
UPDATE: I noticed that the whole Auditorium has been ridded of 9846s on 9105s, and everything is SET-MC-WW-ALERTs, with the speaker only varient as well. The side entrance slips have ST-MC-CW-ALERT strobes. This is the only area in the school without the old alarms now.
Someone told me that they were testing the speaker/strobes during their sophomore orientation. This probably means that those will in fact be used instead of the old fire alarms. Tomorrow my school does this Emegency Drills segment where we practice the lockdown, fire, and tornado drills at once, so because of the ‘ALERT’ lettering they might go off for each of the drills, obviously with a different message.
I’m kinda excited to see how they do but if the oldies are used instead that will be dissappointing.
Oh and an edit: if they go off for every severe thunderstorm warning issued within the year I SWEAR TO GO…
If it was me, I would be kind of sad that they are getting rid of the old horns and installing electronic alarms as replacements but that is just me.
They’re adding a whole new addition onto the back of the building, and due to new codes I believe that’s why they’ve installed speaker/strobes instead of Wheelock Exceeders. But yeah, still I will miss having remote strobes in the classrooms and seeing Exceeders and -9846s in a school for the first time. Just wish I saw the Cerberus Pyrotronics alarms from the older building rather than some in older unused hallways.
Ok, so here is what I gathered as a freshman at my high school, I haven’t seen the control panel yet. But I do know a fair bit of the notification systems in my classes.
So:
Where my science class is has Gentex Commander 3’s along the hall and in the class rooms. My class has two of them.
Most of the hallways have SHG horn stobes at Code 3, Two of my classes have GXS inside the classroom, most of them do as I could see passing by.
My gym and locker room has Gentex SSPK, I don’t know the tones on them yet. My cafeteria area has SpectrAlert classics, some in white and some in red.
I can say the SHG’s sound much, much better than the 4903-9217’s in my middle school.The 4903’s were mechanical and over a decade old, some of the lights didn’t work, the horns would skip terribly, they were almost deafening, the SHG’s are so much quieter. Also, I forgot to mention that we have Simplex T-Bars and BG-12’s with STI covers over them in every hallway.