Protection against fires has been acquiring great importance over time, as light is too frequent a risk and with very tragic consequences not only in economic matters but also in the loss of human life.
Thus, through mandatory regulations, the necessary means and measures have been established so that buildings are increasingly safe concerning a fire’s probabilities and if it does happen, extinction and safe and secure from people quickly and efficiently. But even so, you see firefighting measures in constructions that its purpose is not known.
If you stop in any public building such as a shopping center, a hospital, a hotel and look up you can see several elements in addition to the lights, and that are camouflaged in the decoration of the building, often going unnoticed, among these, you can see detectors and sprinklers which are part of the fire system.
But it would be best if you first made a differentiation of the components of the fire protection system based on the primary function they have so that you can differentiate:
- Fire detection.
- Fire fighting.
- The evacuation of the building.
In fire detection you must include all the detection elements of which the installation is composed and which communicate with the center which is the brain of the entire system and which is in charge of verifying the correct operation of all the elements and in the event of a fire, it will give the alarm to give way to the other part of the fire system, the extinguishing system.
Central alarm
In turn, the alarm centers may be connected to a signal receiving centers or security control centers from where they can carry out the necessary checks by security personnel or by video surveillance systems to activate the emergency services.
Once a fire has been detected and located, the second and third parts of the system come into operation, in terms of the fire extinguishing system whose purpose is to extinguish the fire and prevent its spread, the elements that are usually part of it. They are:
Fire extinguishers: The best known, easy to use, and present in all types of facilities and vehicles can smother a small outbreak of fire, preventing its spread.
The sprinklers: They are less known among the general public, installed on the roofs they expel murky water, acting in the first moments of a fire alarm.
If buildings must have fire stopping installation, fire extinguishing systems, and evacuation plans, it is more crucial that once installed; they are reviewed and checked for correct operation by installation and maintenance companies regularly to guarantee that in case of fire all the elements will work correctly.
The evacuation plans are not only about having them but also about making them known to the building staff, establishing the functions that certain people must perform in each case, in addition to carrying out evacuation drills even periodically to put into practice the action protocols in case of emergency.
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