Fire Protection: How One University Did It

Designing a fire alarm system for colleges and sprawling university campuses poses many challenges consisting of protecting multiple buildings with effective detection and notification systems, covering new construction and renovations maintaining testing and inspections to ensure good working order.  In addition to all safety considerations, budgeting for fire and life safety systems with all stakeholders on board is another challenge facing safety and electrical technicians. 

Here’s how one university, the University of North Georgia, rehauled their fire alarm system throughout the entire campus, incorporated additional properties when expanding, eliminated false alarms and got all stakeholders on board.  

The Challenge of College Campus Fire Alarm Systems

The challenge facing most college campuses when designing fire alarm systems is providing a single fire alarm solution throughout multiple buildings, one that is simple to use, monitor and maintain. College campuses include dorm rooms, academic buildings, student centers, dining halls and recreational areas.  Educating administrative personnel and all stakeholders of the value an integrated fire and life safety system provides is important. 

When the University of North Georgia decided to provide one fire alarm solution, they experienced all of these challenges in addition to the disarray of the current system. Different systems were installed in different buildings, inspections, maintenance and testing had not been performed, and false alarms were a regular nuisance averaging 2 to 3 per week.

In addition to this challenge, the campus merged with Gainesville State College to create the University of North Georgia and another layer of complexity in providing fire alarm monitoring and protection. The University of Georgia faced monitoring approximately 5,000 points on their original campus and over 10,000 points after a merger in 2013. 

College Campus Fire Alarm Solution

Once the decision had been made to improve the fire and life safety systems, Fire-Lite by Honeywell was chosen as the optimum system to meet all safety and budgeted goals. A combination of fire alarm control panels, detectors, evacuation equipment and all other required equipment consisted of the following:

●       (35) 9200UDLS, 9600UD and 9050UD Fire-Lite fire alarm control panels on the main campus

●       (73) FCPS248 and FCPS246 fire alarm power supplies

●       (15) ACC-25/50 and ECC-50/100 voice evacuation panels

●       (575) H355 heat detectors

●       (90) H355 heat detectors with B501 intelligent sounder bases

●       (437) BG-12LX manual pull stations

●       (1,466) SD355 smoke detectors

●       (1082) SD355 smoke detectors with B501 intelligent sounder bases

All equipment had to be installed for functionality with the historic beauty of the buildings taken into consideration during installation.  This integrated fire alarm solution has significantly improved the emergency response time of the University and has all but eliminated false alarms.  In fact, after a major lightning strike hit a dorm damaging a fire alarm control panel and peripheral devices, the University’s electronic systems technician was able to install a new panel and upload everything to begin troubleshooting within an hour.

To learn more about designing fire alarm and life safety systems for college campuses, contact your fire and safety system specialist.

High Rise Security Systems is a leading fire and life safety system specialist protecting commercial properties, colleges and campuses in and around Chicago. We provide fire alarm system design, UL listed equipment, testing, maintenance, inspections and monitoring 24/7/365. Contact us to learn more about integrated and addressable fire alarm systems and learn which system meets your goals for campus safety.