At Elephant and Castle in south London, Elephant and Castle, Joyce Newman House is an eight-storey block of 40 living spaces commissioned by Leathermarket JMB, the borough of Southwark’s largest resident-managed housing body. The affordable-housing features landscaped gardens, an interactive playground and a communal kitchen garden for residents.
Specified and supplied by Churches Fire & Security working alongside Blu Electrical Installations Ltd, EVAC-ALERT, an evacuation alert product from manufacturer C-TEC, has been designed to comply with the new BS 8629. That’s a British Standard which recommends evacuation alert systems be installed in all new blocks of flats over 18 metres to assist the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) in evacuating part or all of a building in an emergency.
The system consists of a two-loop control panel connected to single and multi-way interface units, self-testing sounders and visual indicators. An intuitive product with manual controls it allows firefighters to operate the evacuation alert devices inside flats on a zone by zone or floor by floor basis. The panel is stored in a secure vandal resistant cabinet which can only be accessed by the fire service using a copy-protected key.
David Collins, Project Manager at Churches Fire & Security, said: “Evacuation alert systems ensure firefighters can alert occupants in a building of the need to evacuate if a fire gets out of control. The EVAC-ALERT system we’ve specified provides peace of mind for residents and, crucially, also demonstrates that building management have taken every precaution possible to protect the people residing in the property. Our client is delighted with the system.”
About the product
Certified to all relevant EN54 product standards, EVAC-ALERT is powered by C-TEC’s CAST protocol and works with ENVISION, its new cloud-based fire alarm remote access, service and site management software package which can be used to provide duty holders with a verifiable audit trail of system activity and device testing. Visit www.c-tec.com.
