SFA Fire & Security partnered with Hochiki to provide a tailored, comprehensive life safety solution for Admiral Lord Nelson School. Despite the challenges, the installation delivered invaluable protection for staff, students, and property.
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.
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.
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.
“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.”
