In Sittingbourne in Kent, Milton Court School is for children aged three to 11. Some 250 staff and pupils occupy a two storey Victorian building that has seen refurbishment over recent years.
However, Paula Cruickshank, office manager at Milton Court, was recognising that its fire detection system was nearing the end of its life and becoming more unreliable. She says: ‘We were experiencing frequent false alarms, which in this type of environment is extremely disruptive. In order to have a more reliable life safety infrastructure we needed a completely new solution that could meet our needs both now and in the future.’
Milton Court invited the Maidstone-based installer Obsidian Security to tender for the contract. Obsidian was awarded the contract in July 2013. Project manager, Ben Aspland, says: ‘We carry out a lot of work in schools and colleges, and understand exactly what works and what doesn’t. Milton Court required a BS 5839 compliant category L2 analogue addressable fire detection system. Detection and alarm devices from Hochiki Europe, controlled by a Kentec Syncro AS panel provided an ideal package to meet the school’s requirements.’
Obsidian has worked with Hochiki Europe and Kentec Electronics for a number of years Ben adds: ‘We’ve installed fire detection devices from Hochiki and control panels from Kentec on many occasions. In our experience they always integrate seamlessly and they provide a highly flexible, reliable and robust solution for a wide variety of applications.’
The fire detection is based around Hochiki Europe’s Enhanced Systems Protocol (ESP), described by its makers as a total communications solution for intelligent fire detection. The fact that ESP is an open protocol system means that detectors, interfaces and control equipment are interchangeable.
To minimise disruption in term time, the work was done in August. Ben Aspland says: ‘We needed to keep the existing system fully operational to provide complete protection during the process. We also had to put in place a brand new wiring infrastructure, as the cable that was already in-situ was very old, did not meet the current standards and did not extend into some of the areas where new devices would be sited.’
The system features a range of Hochiki Europe devices including more than 60 ALG-EN optical smoke detectors, which feature Hochiki Europe’s High Performance Chamber Technology. This minimises the differences in sensitivity experienced in flaming and smouldering fires and helps to reduce the possibility of unwanted alarms. Also fitted were the company’s heat detectors, sounders, sounder bases and interface units. ACA-E multi sensors have been sited in the canteen and staff kitchen, chosen for their ability to alternate between day/night detection modes.
The detectors are programmed to operate as heat sensors in normal school hours and otherwise as optical smoke sensors and heat sensors. This reduces the probability of false activations caused by normal cooking smoke or steam in these areas. The times are set via the control panel time clock and can be reset to account for changes of use or holidays.
On the same site is Milton Court Children’s Centre, where Obsidian needed to ensure that the fire detection systems from both buildings could talk with each other. Aspland says: ‘This represented a particular challenge as we didn’t want the Children’s Centre to evacuate during a fire alarm test at the School. Therefore, we configured a “double knock” arrangement, whereby the use of one manual call point will not activate the Children’s Centre’s fire detection system but two active devices, as would be typical in a genuine fire situation, will.’
For Milton Court Paula Cruickshank, adds: ‘Our new Hochiki Europe fire detection system is a vast improvement on what we had before and has already proven to be reliable, easy to manage and completely hassle free. We want our staff, pupils and visitors to be safe here and I’m now 100 per cent confident that they will be.’
For further information
Visit: www.hochikieurope.com; www.obsidiansecurity.co.uk or www.milton-court.kent.sch.uk
