 |
| |
 |
 |
|
|
GOODBYE FALSE FIRE ALARMS,
HELLO HAPPY CUSTOMERS
CST's new system prevents 90% of false alarms,
saving lives AND money
False fire alarms bedevil the hospitality market. They upset customers - especially at 2.00 in the morning, in midwinter, in a damp and dismal hotel car park, when people should be tucked up warm in bed. What's more, they cost the industry thousands a year - and those costs are set to rise.
The next false alarm at your hotel, restaurant, leisure centre, club or pub might not only be a major inconvenience, it could also be a major expense. Fire services are planning to downgrade the response afforded to those premises that have regular false alarms. When your response level is downgraded, you and your insurance company are notified that your risk cover may not be adequate, as the fire service will not be attending to "nuisance false alarms". Which means your insurance could be increased to cover the extra risk to property and public liability.
Now Call-Systems Technology (CST), the leading specialist in on-site communications for the hospitality market, has developed AlarmAlert, a system that, in trials, reduced false alarms by 90%. AlarmAlert uses a groundbreaking combination of communications technology and good old common sense. Best of all, being wireless it is inexpensive, unobtrusive and easy to install.
When an alarm sounds, CST's specially developed pager system intercepts the data and instantly alerts the site's fire marshal, giving the precise location of the alarm.
The marshal goes straight to the source of the warning alarm (indicated via the alphanumeric pagers) and has three minutes to determine whether the alarm is false or not -
after that, the alarm automatically alerts the fire service. If it's a false alarm, the marshal can stand down the alarm, cancelling the call to the fire service. If three minutes elapse before the alarm is cancelled, the marshal can still call the rescue services to cancel the callout.
Customers need never know that the alarm occurred.
AlarmAlert is the initiative of Alan Beecham, a senior officer with the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service and the Service's Fire Alarm Coordinator. Alan wanted to find a way that public buildings could be certain that, when the alarm was sounded, it was a true emergency and not a false alarm.
During a 6-week trial in Manchester, false alarms dropped by 90% and Alan Beecham describes the results as 'fantastic'. "The system adds to public safety because it delivers an instant response to a fire alarm. The fire service will aim for arrival to an alarm within ten minutes, but with this system there is a trained fire team investigating instantly," he adds.
Ashley Sheppard, sales director of Call-Systems Technology, believes AlarmAlert is a major advance in public safety: "The system is helping to beat false fire alarms, which are a nationwide problem. More important, the systems can also help save lives: while a fire engine is racing to a false alarm, it can't be scrambled to attend a real emergency.
"Since AlarmAlert is compatible with most systems, we can normally interface it easily with whatever fire alarm the site already has," he adds, "which makes it both quick and inexpensive to install.
"This is a public service safety breakthrough we are proud to be involved with."
|
|
|
|
| Sitemap |
Call-Systems Technology Ltd, Middlesex House, 29-45 High Street, Edgware, Middlesex HA8 7UU |
|
|
|
