Survival strategies for fire alarm systems

Since Sept. 11, there has been new concern among building owners and occupants about the survivability of fire alarm systems - their

A number of factors contribute to the survivability of the fire alarm system. The most important is system architecture, which should be dispersed throughout the building. For example, in older systems, a single data-gathering panel and amplifier were usually placed in one location, so if an incident occurred adjacent to this location to disable the panel, the entire system would fail.

Today, the panels are distributed over many different areas, often on every third or fourth floor, and are able to operate alone. They will continue to function even if there is a failure at the head end or in the communication network. The audio system components are also designed with built-in redundancy and distributed throughout the building, so communication will carry on even if one or more of the amplifiers goes down.