Smoke/Fire Detection Sensors

A strong word of CAUTION !
some if not most fire departments are NOT prepared for any incident involving 4160 volt circuits, live or dead.
If there is a FM-200 system in place, caution placards must be on all entry doors, and special precautions must be taken before entering the room if the system had discharged.

At my facility, we have to bring in all fire department crews to do specific training for fire / rescue at least 1 or 2 times a year for training and different situations.

This also includes our substation also.

james
 
at a dozen hydro electric power plants in BC with voltage inside the building up to 25 kV we have always had a proper fire detection panel with some laser beam for smoke detection, heat detectors, and who knows what other detectors, and while it may sound an alarm all it really does in terms of control is a dry contact to the PLC. The PLC then de-energizes the units, dials out the alarm, shuts any air intake louvres and turns off hot air exaust fans.

The smoke detector works really well, the operator has set it off by burning his lunch in the microwave and by firing up the snowmobile and kubota in the powerhouse.
 
All of the reasons given for a dedicated, purpose built panel are spot on however the one that’s being left out is fire department response times. If you have your own detection system then when the detector goes off, it will notify your company and then you will need to call the fire department. If you have a monitored fire alarm system then when the detector goes off you’re cutting out one leg of the loop reducing the time it takes to notify the fire department. Even if we’re talking about 30 seconds to a minute (probably more like two minutes) the amount of growth a fire can do in that time frame could mean the difference between repairing the facility or replacing it.


If the risk assessment is high enough you can use automated fire extinguisher systems.
 

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