Little Sisters of the Poor, Gallup, N.M., was created as a private, non-profit, Catholic nursing home. A few years ago, the three-acre facility added a modern, assisted-living component. The three-story complex connects to the main facility and enables residents who don’t need a nursing home to live independently while giving them access to services.

Still, at least 95 percent of the residents in the two buildings would require some level of assistance evacuating the premises should a fire alarm go off. In order to keep disruption to a minimum, the workers need to quickly determine if there is actually a fire and if there is, be able to determine its exact location so only the people in proximity to the fire have to be evacuated.

Until recently, neither of these capabilities was possible with the existing fire protection system.

The solution was an addressable system that would not only pinpoint the exact location of a potential fire “situation” but also allow personnel to determine its true nature. Joe Mesich, owner of Advanced Technical Services, also in Gallup, provided a fire protection system from Silent Knight with an IFP-1000 intelligent analog/addressable fire control panel.

According to Mesich, the ability to pinpoint exact locations within the system is by far the primary benefit.

“At every annunciator [one on each floor and one in the maintenance department] we have a list of all the points of protection, so personnel can scroll down and determine the exact location of the alarm, said Mesich. “Concurrently, when a fire alarm goes off, our communications center will call the facility. We don’t actually dispatch the fire department unless they know it’s a fire, which saves time, money and resources.”