Admiral Lord Nelson School

 

In a bustling environment like a school, comprehensive fire protection is non-negotiable for safeguarding students across multiple buildings with complex infrastructure. When their existing fire system needed an upgrade, the Admiral Lord Nelson School chose specialists SFA Fire & Security for the installation, using Hochiki’s FIREbeam Xtra, and ESP for a fully open protocol system.

The Admiral Lord Nelson School, in Portsmouth, safeguards students and staff across three floors daily. With specialist classrooms spanning an extensive area, the Admiral Lord Nelson School needed more than just a system to detect fire; they needed a modern and resilient life safety solution that upgrades alongside the school.

 

 

SFA Fire & Security were chosen to provide end-to-end delivery from design to installation, for single partner accountability, guaranteeing full compliance and a streamlined process. Backed by 26 years of experience and their substantial knowledge of Hochiki products, they delivered a robust, high-quality life safety system tailored to the school’s needs.

 

 

SFA encountered some challenges with the variation of specialised rooms in the school, such as the laboratory kiln room, atrium and the sports hall. Each space required a tailored solution that prioritised staff and student safety, without compromising functionality.

 

 

 

The project’s daily routine created numerous tests for SFA. In a live educational setting, installation work was going to be unavoidably invasive, and with strict deadlines, the project had to be completed in staggered stages, potentially delaying completion. To counteract this, SFA scheduled work during the summer holidays and the following half-term break so neither students nor the installation team were interrupted.  This approach delivered rapid on-site progress utilising pre-stage device addressing.

 

 

 

Another challenge was the school’s spacious glass-fronted atrium, with its large coverage making traditional point detection impractical. Hochiki’s FIREbeam Xtra was installed as the perfect solution for its reliable coverage at height across the space; its enhanced sensitivity and false alarm reduction efficiently detects large volumes of smoke in open areas.

 

 

Hochiki’s ESP open protocol is a flexible solution, providing flawless integration and broad compatibility. The school needed an easy-to-maintain system that could span over several teaching blocks for full fire coverage. The combination of Hochiki products with an addressable Advanced fire control panel created a comprehensive fire management and maintenance system that allowed the school and engineers to easily monitor devices, complete maintenance and, in the event of an incident, pinpoint the exact location of a fire.

 

 

SFA strategically used a range of heat and multi-sensors to combat the specialised requirements of each room. Multi-sensors were deliberately positioned in the science rooms due to the variety of gases and smoke generated from chemical reactions during lessons; multi-sensors can better discriminate between genuine fire risks and transient signals from false alarms. Heat sensors were intentionally used in the food technology rooms and kitchens to recognise significant changes in temperature, which can indicate a real fire, rather than general cooking activities.

 

 

Working closely with the school management, bespoke EN54 approved tones and patterns were determined and then programmed into the system’s sounders, so that all alarm types were unique and distinctive from each other. The different tones were used for situation identification, such as class change, lockdown and fire incidents, enhancing building safety.  This allows building occupants to respond quickly and appropriately to each alarm, minimising confusion and evacuation time.

 

 

 

 

“We have worked with Hochiki products over many years in various projects and environments and their reliability is top-class.”

 

said Naomi Fell, Project Director at SFA. 

 

“Despite the tight deadlines, Hochiki’s ESP open protocol and versatile product range made it easy to integrate into the existing fire system, and easy for the school to operate. It’s a system that they can trust and use for years to come. We’re very proud to have been able to future-proof the safety of the school in this way.”

 

Combining Hochiki's products with SFA's expertise ensures the Admiral Lord Nelson school now has a high-quality life safety system that can evolve over time, keeping its students and staff protected into the foreseeable future.