Life Safety & Fire Alarm

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Fire Alarm Specialty Design of North Windham, Conn. was contacted to resolve a problem with the fire alarm system at Lawrence Junior High School in Falmouth, Mass. The existing fire panel was well beyond its life cycle and could not be repaired. The only option was to replace it — and that’s when a new set of issues came to light. 

COPsync Inc. announced a joint technology development agreement with LIFEWatch USA, a provider of Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS).

Fire alarm technology doesn’t move very fast, and there are very good reasons for this. Because fire is about saving lives, codes and standards dictate what is allowable, and it takes time to make sure each new development is absolutely safe. 

There are many code- and standards-regulating bodies that have a say in state and local fire codes, including UL, Intertek and others. But NFPA 72 — the National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code — is arguably the most influential. SDM spoke with Richard Roux, senior electrical specialist at NFPA about recent and upcoming changes to the code one integrator referred to as “the Bible” of fire protection.

Ensuring that every worker returns home safely at the end day is an employer’s most basic responsibility.

Personal emergency response systems (PERS) traditionally have worked only in a user’s home, enabling users to summon help with the push of a button — typically on a pendant that the user wears. But recent years have seen the introduction of mobile PERS offerings (mPERS) that can work outside the home using cellular service for communications to the central station.