FA Updates

Here we can post any updates to FA systems we may run across. That way it’ll be easy to locate any news.

Oak Park Mall
One of the Gentex SHGs has been taken down, there’s a plate in its place. All other SHGs are still up.

AmericInn
They installed a Stopper II over a Gamewell Full Moon pull in the pool area.

Rochester Methodist Hospital:
They’re putting up new boxes for new FA NAs and initiating devices.

Raley’s: They got a new Ademco 10P fire/ burularly system because the old adt one broke. oh and yea they use it for fire and buguraly. system has adt 5050 pulls and some sort of larger white mt?

OK, RMH now has SpectrAlert Advance speaker/strobes (some replaced the Life-Alarms, others were installed to cover the gaps.) and NBG-12s. Some of the Simplex system is still present.

I highly doubt they installed a Vista 10P for fire in a commercial building. I bet its something like a Vista 32FB, which is listed for use in commercial fire systems, and is listed for commercial burglary as well.

Our Holiday Inn got a new system!

Old System
[list]

  • [*]4002 Panel
  • [*]2901-9806s on 4904-9101s
  • [*]4051 T-Bar
  • [/list]

    New System
    [list]

  • [*]Gamewell 7100 series FACP Gamewell-FCI | Honeywell Building Technologies
  • [*]SpectrAlert Advances on RFP retrofit plates.
  • [*]BG-12
  • [/list]

    At the mall entrance next to the Best Buy entrance over at Westgate Mal, a Notifier BG-10 pull was recently replaced with an NBG-12LX pull. The Wheelock MT-24-LSM above it remains intact, as do other BG-10 pulls

    Here’s another update, this one involving the David E. Crosby school administration building. They are currently renovating part of the ground floor to make into a new parents’ registration center. The system is a Simplex 4207 panel, with 4051+4050-80 horn/lights (and a couple of them with 2901-9806 horns), and the pulls are break-glass 4251-30s, as well as older Simplex 4255-5 heat detectors and a couple of 4265 models. The wing they were renovated was completely gutted and had the old alarm parts removed (a 4051+4050-80, 4251-30 and several 4255-5 heat sensors), and they threw out most of the old components (but they gave me the 4051+4050-80 and one of the heat sensors :smiley: ). Now the wing is almost finished. They currently have a System Sensor SpectrAlert Advance horn/strobe on a large red RFP adapter plate (set to 15 candelas), and a bunch of newer System Sensor 5621 heat detectors. The Simplex 4251-30 pull station was also reinstalled (but no glass was put in). Surprisingly, they STILL have the old Simplex 4207 fire alarm panel that was installed in the late 1970s (the building was built in 1932). I wonder how a SpectrAlert Advance would function running off such an old fire alarm panel?

    Rochester Methodist Hospital:

    It appears as if the migration from the Simplex system to the Notifier system is now complete. Most, if not all, Life-Alarm & 4903 speakers have been replaced with SpectrAlert Advances and the 4099s replaced with NBG-12s.

    Today was graduation day at MHS, and my brother was one of the graduates. As we were making our way out of the auditorium, I looked up and noticed that one of the old smoke detectors was replaced with a TrueAlarm smoke! Now the old detectors are ionization detectors, but IDK if that’s what the new one is or not (they look identical to the photoelectric ones). Still, those old detectors are origional to that part of the building, which was built around 1991, so those detectors are almost 20 years old! The newer HS detectors started to go before one of the MS ones did!

    Local YMCA:

    Smoke detector outside gym is hanging off the ceiling by one wire and the FACP has a zone-two trouble.

    http://www.securitysales.com/t_inside.aspx?action=article&storyID=3472

    Seems Fenway Park has had a massive overhaul. Apparently it’s always had an EST system, but I remember going there in May of 2002 and I don’t remember seeing anything. I guess now it’ll be hard to miss seeing any part of this huge system.

    I remember seeing Wheelock speaker/strobes there when I went to see a game last October.

    Remember that Fenway is actually massive and has MANY areas where you will never set foot. The areas in which you have access to is VERY limited and for the most part “outside” Fenway has an entire labyrinth of tunnels and crevices and crawl spaces. From wireways to corporate offices those areas need protection and monitoring and notification devices. There are multiple buildings interconnected to the ballpark many of which are mixed use. Fenway’s capacity is about 40,000 you do not just send a message over some speakers or sound some horns there needs to be an EXTREMELY orderly evacuation and a false alarm can not just dump an entire park it would be a nightmare for both security and responding public safety officials keep in mind just about every event has a representative from the Boston Fire Department on scene. You as spectators will probably notice almost no difference. Being a Fenway regular I go to games and events monthly I can almost guarantee you that you may not even notice the difference for the most part yet again… I can tell you with 100% honesty when I am at Fenway I don’t give a shit about their fire alarms.

    Well, I never figured I’d see a panel anyway, but what I was referring to was the fact that I didn’t recall seeing any signals, pull stations, detectors, etc.

    I found it interesting that the article said the park kept adding signals over time. The old system did seem like a hastle so this new one is a big improvement. Can’t exactly say I agree that chaos would ensue should an alarm happen. Maybe if word of a bomb or imminent terrorist attack leaked, but it’s been my experience that when it comes to alarms in public places, most people just ignore it. That was the case in the Quincy Market fire back in 2003 - alarms were so common in the building that people ignored them. They were lucky no one was hurt, as most people didn’t leave until they saw the smoke.

    What formal public safety training to support this claim do you have weatherdan?

    there have been signals and pulls for YEARS. They are not easy to spot they are mainly near ramps but like i said again they are mainly in the areas you would not be in. Take a look in the bathroom next time you are there or on a concourse level you will eventually see something. Remember the ballpark is a HUGE facility and regular strobes and horns are not going to cut it in terms of where a majority of the public is located. A bomb threat or terror threat would not “leak” it would be handled with extreme caution and people would never even know why they evactuated unless some dipshit with a scanner in the park started spreading it around. But responding public safety officials know not to let that leak. Boston officials train regulary for an emergency at Fenway and I for one have complete confidence in how it would be handled. As for Quincy Market remember that is a tourist trap so just because the alarms go off regularly there is no excuse the people there for the most part are there for their first time as not evacuating you have no idea what policy is in place with the Boston fire department with the staff and security that run the facility and neither do I it may be policy to hold off on a forced evacuation. Quick tidbit my father designed and oversaw the installation the original Simplex system for the building back when he was overseeing Boston’s side of Simplex. The 8 zone panel in my old house was initially meant for one of the second buildings within that property before the plans were changed and sections of the old buildings were divided up by request of Boston Fire.

    I remember the main building at Quincy Market had a Simplex system, but now I think it’s one of those bigger voice-evac models (as a couple of areas have voice-evac alarms installed) tied into a Mircom panel (I saw a Mircom annunciator near one of the shops). The North Building still has a rather old Simplex system with 4051+4050-80 horn/lights and various Simplex T-bar pulls (both old and new). They also have this rather old Simplex annunciator:

    Looks like the kind that goes to a Simplex 4207/4208 or even a 2001. The South building’s main fire alarm system is now a Mircom system, with Wheelock AS horn/strobes (but all the pulls are Simplex, a mix of older and newer ones.)

    Not to drag this OT, but I don’t really have in-person experiences, at least when it comes to people initially in the building. I’ve seen time after time at UA during alarms and drills that despite the alarms going off (audibles and strobes), people just go into the building thinking the alarm is “just another noise”. Plus, just go to YouTube and search “mall fire alarm” and in just about every vid you see, everyone just ignores the alarm.

    And for the record, by “public places” I meants malls and other high occupancy places. Office buildings and schools would definately take it seriously.

    That’s right. I remember when I went to South Shore Mall one day, the fire alarms were going off in one section of the mall. When I arrived a fire truck was parked there, and the Simplex annunciator was displaying an “ALARM” condition. I asked a firefighter if it was safe to be in there, and he said it was; there was a problem with the alarm system (it was a Simplex 4120 network of some kind). Despite the speaker/strobes flashing every second and constantly doing the Slow Whoop noise, people just ignored it and didn’t even care (I was half-expecting at least someone to think there was a fire and head for the exit!) I was also told if it were a real emergency, the system would also play an evacuation message (I imagine it is the default 4100/4120/4100U male voice-evac message.) I went over to the Apple store, which was in an area where the alarms were NOT going off (I guess the main control panel in this section was not in alarm mode; only in that one area I mentioned.) After a while in there, I left the store and noticed the alarms had stopped in that part of the mall; the Slow Whoop had stopped and the strobes weren’t flashing. Then when I left, there was a SimplexGrinnell van parked outside the mall, and the alarm technician and a mall security officer were working on the 2500 NDU command center for the system, located in the parking garage.

    Again, I was surprised nobody was paying attention to the alarms going off, or evacuating or panicking or anything like that. But then again, the alarms weren’t very loud, but still…