Whilst low temperatures and fire don’t seem like a likely combination, there are in fact many factors that make cold storage susceptible to fire risk.
Econofoods understand the critical business impact a fire would have at their stores. Keeping the food at the right temperatures in controlled cold storage is essential to providing customers with the best produce.
specialist fire protection measures
Due to the harsh conditions of a bulk freezer room Wayne Behrens of Coetzer Fire Services understood the need for specialist fire protection measures. As standard point detectors won’t operate in the extreme temperatures of the freezer room Wayne selected to use an ASD531 aspirating smoke detector.
The ASD531 was mounted on the outside of the room and the pipes fed capillary points to access the freezer room ceiling from above by way of a conical air sampling head. This method was ideal for minimizing disruption to the freezer room currently holding stock and will also be easier for future maintenance access.
water trap, digital linear heat cables
A water trap is installed after the filter to prevent any condensation build from reaching the detector
Understanding other issues with taking air from the cold room, a water trap is installed after the filter to prevent any condensation build from reaching the detector.
Other chiller rooms were protected using digital linear heat cables. As these specially calibrated cables will detect if the temperature in the chiller room increases to a critical point, it will activate an alarm at the panel.
conventional panels
The different areas report back to conventional panels which will set off the sirens in the event of an alarm. The panels will also of course monitor all the equipment and notify of any faults across the system.
The use of conventional panels greatly assisted in helping the client achieve their fire protection goals while sticking to their assigned budget.
ASD531
Wayne Behrens felt the use of the ASD531 was critical to meeting all of the client's objectives. “The ASD531 is simple and quick to install, but despite its economical pricing it doesn’t compromise on quality and offers excellent high sensitivity detection.”
He claims both he and Econofoods are happy to use this same equipment for fire protection in their other stores.
