*According to the National Restaurant Association, 57% of all restaurant fires involve cooking equipment. This means the fire can be contained if you have a suppression system installed…. Therefore, fire suppression system instantly becomes your first line of defence. You just need to know more about it and how it works.
Suppression Systems
Fire suppression systems are used to extinguish or prevent the spread of fire in a building. Suppression systems use a combination of dry chemicals and/or wet agents to suppress equipment fires.
Who needs to have a Fire Suppression System?
Major hotels, boats, big commercial kitchens, heavy machinery, cranes, excavators…
Aerosol systems. (stat-x / pyrogen)
Condensed aerosol fire suppression is a particle-based form of fire extinction. The condensed aerosol micro-particles and effluent gases are generated by the exothermic reaction. The particles remain in vapour state until the process of being discharged from the device.
This system may be a good choice in unoccupied areas of facilities where there is enough room for a suppression system to be stored. This system can potentially reduce collateral damage from a fire compared with other systems.
They are suitable for fire hazards involving combustible materials such as paper, wood, cloth, rubber and many types of plastics. Also for flammable combustible liquids and contained electrical fire situations eg. switchboards.
Clean Agent (gaseous) systems
(naf-s-111 / fm-200 / novec 1230/ ig-55 / inergen / carbon dioxide)
Clean Agent fire-suppression is a term used to describe gases used to extinguish fires. It can stop a fire in a matter of seconds by reducing oxygen levels in the atmosphere to a level that will no longer sustain combustion.
It can also react chemically with the fire absorbing heat and cause the chain reaction of combustion to break down.
These agents are colourless, environmentally friendly, they do not present any threat to people and they extinguish a fire quickly without leaving any residue behind that needs to be cleaned up.
Fire can be devastating and conventional fire systems provide effective protection but when it comes to irreplaceable items, water can be just as damaging as any fire.
With this in mind the Clean Agent (gaseous) system is the most suitable for telecommunication facilities, data centres, electrical cabinets, storage vaults, museums, etc.
Water Mist Systems
Water Mist Suppression systems are specifically designed to either suppress or extinguish a fire. It produces a specific range of water spray sizes and velocities. Water is a great fire suppression agent due to its high capacity and latent heat of vaporisation.
The larger droplets have enough energy to penetrate the plume and cool the fuel. The smaller water droplets can be converted to steam at the flame front and entrained into the prime thereby displacing oxygen.
There are three types os Water Mist Systems:
Water Mist high pressure – In many cases, these systems are able to substitute for sprinkler systems providing equivalent protection with a fraction of the water usage.
The technology is specifically designed to extinguish fires in commercial kitchens, taking away the conventional wet chemical systems and the potential messy clean-up process.
Water Mist intermediate pressure – They have larger droplets sizes than the high pressure systems and since they have a limited water supply they are usually a more economic system.
They are used in turbine enclosures, machinery spaces, hydraulic pump rooms, etc.
Water Mist low pressure – They are very similar to low flow sprinkler system and the flow rate is generally higher than the high pressure or intermediate pressure water mist systems.
They are quite economical, however the applications are a bit limited as the extinguishment efficacy is lower than that of High and Intermediate pressure water systems.
Wet Chemical Systems (ansul / zone defence / aquablue)
Also known as the traditional fire suppression system. The suppressant is a liquid substance that, when sprayed onto the affected area, cools the flames immediately.
Its effectiveness is due in part to its immediate response to fire. When the liquid comes into contact with cooking oils and fats, it reacts to produce foam, subsequently cooling the affected area and preventing the fire from reigniting.
In commercial kitchens heat detection devices are located behind filters, they run the entire length of the hood and activate automatically at a pre-determined temperature.
These systems are fully automatic, generally with a manual over-ride release system and protect the hood 24h a day.