Brooks Wireless Interconnected Smoke Alarm
A recent fire at Sydney’s Middle Harbour Yacht Club prompted the owners of neighbouring Ferguson’s Marina to seek out their own innovative fire protection solution.
Martin Thompson of Ferguson’s Marina said: “We don’t have the benefit of close neighbours, but we do have residents in each building.”
“My family also lives in part of the marina building so I needed a first class early warning solution for the building and naturally, their protection is of paramount concern to me.”
Wireless smoke alarms
Ferguson Marina consulted with Fire Safe Australia & New Zealand, who recommended that Ferguson’s Marina install a Brooks’ linked fire detection system – a series of smoke and heat alarms wirelessly connected by radio frequency (RF) signal.
Interconnecting smoke alarms is now mandatory in Australia in all new dwellings where more than one smoke alarm is installed.
Wireless connection enables smoke alarms to “speak to” each other without the need for cabling – handy when retrofitting existing buildings.
In the event of one alarm detecting a fire, all interconnected alarms will sound throughout the property simultaneously.
This minimises the very real risk that in the event of a fire, a heavy sleeper, shut behind a bedroom door will not be woken in time by an alarm in a remote downstairs hallway.
This was one of the major attractions for Ferguson’s Marina to install wirelessly connected smoke alarms – the building includes a number of areas where a regular smoke detector would not be heard when unattended.
Linking these alarms via RF signal aids early warning in the event of a fire and multiple buildings can be linked, so an alarm in one building can alert residents and tenants in both sites at once.
This system of linked alarms that utilise RF signals can also be adapted to suit large boats.