Due to their reputation as experts in specialist fire detections systems, Eurofyre were contacted by Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) service to provide smoke detection systems for protecting prisoners and staff at 35 prisons throughout the UK.
There are many fire risks within a prison; arson, riots, kitchens and smoking can all cause a fire to start and bedding and soft furnishings can cause it to spread rapidly throughout the building. Therefore, it is essential that the system in place is fast, reliable, tamper-proof and can provide the exact location of a fire.
Prisons are typically challenging environments to protect from fire. They often have high ceilings, large open spaces, drafts, dirt and dust. It’s also necessary to be able to pinpoint the exact location of a fire. However, placing traditional point detectors inside individual cells often leads to system tampering and disablement. Maintenance can also be an issue with engineer access limited and in some cases, very unsafe.
Fire detection in prisons must be reliable. Evacuation procedures are complicated, risky and take up a lot of resources.
HMP Service Fire Detection Solution
HMP manages over 130 prisons in England and Wales with a combined population of more than 80,000 inmates. When looking to upgrade the fire detection systems in some of their prisons they turned to Eurofyre to advise and supply the necessary equipment. Eurofyre, Xtralis’ leading UK distribution partners, were approached by HMP’s main contractors due to their vast experience in specialist fire detection systems.
Xtralis ICAM
Eurofyre provided several hundred ICAM IAS-1 and IAS-2 aspirating smoke detectors with vandal-resistant sampling points for use in 35 of HMP’s facilities.
ICAM early warning fire detection provides very fast detection of smoke and can provide an accurate location of fire so incidents can be dealt with quickly and appropriate suppression methods can be deployed.
ICAM detectors use powerful aspirators to draw air from the protected area into its detection chamber. The benefits of this are twofold; discrete and tamper-proof sampling points can be used in cells to transport air to the detection chamber and the detectors themselves can be installed in a location that is safe and convenient for maintenance access. This not only ensures that prisoners are kept safe from fire, but remote maintenance keeps engineers safe from a potentially hostile environment and, in turn, reduces overall system cost.
Eurofyre
Eurofyre is a proud British manufacturer and suppliers of specialist fire detection equipment. We are proud to support Xtralis and recommend their fire detection products for a huge range of applications. Eurofyre strives to provide exceptional service and is happy to have had the opportunity to offer HMP our expert technical support throughout the project.
ICAM ASD is well suited to a variety of applications including prisons data centres, manufacturing facilities and historic buildings. For more information about aspirating smoke detection, or to discuss any of the other products that Eurofyre have to offer, please feel free to get in touch either by phone on +44 (0) 1329 835 024, by email to sales@eurofyre.co.uk or via the online enquiry form situated on our contact page.
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