Fire Alarm Systems
If your Fire Alarm system is old, new or anything in between, chances are we have worked on the same type of system. We have decades of combined experience in the team – Fire Alarm installation, maintenance and repair is what we do every day.
Our team provides a comprehensive tailored service to a large number of commercial clients, ensuring that their system is maintained effectively to meet compliance. This ranges from monthly testing, Annual Inspection (Annual Survey by an IQP) and providing a Form 12a for the Building Warrant of Fitness (BWoF). We enjoy combining the inspection of multiple Specified Systems into one site visit which saves our clients significantly. In addition to this, we can often inspect 2 or more Specified Systems concurrently which decreases time costs.
We can undertake all installations, additions and repairs to a raft of makes and models of Fire Alarms.
As an IQP (Independent Qualified Person) for several specified systems, Nigel Reid can draw on his experience and legislative knowledge to provide a compliant, cost-effective and tailored approach to your specific system needs. This makes your annual Building Warrant of Fitness process fast and easy! We can easily integrate your Fire Alarm system with other systems so you can get the most out of your investment.
Electrical Cabinet Fire Suppression Systems
Ever wondered how safe your switchboards and cabinets are? Statistics reveal that electricity remains the leading cause of fire incidents across buildings and premises. These fires cause severe disruption to business operations, and are a constant threat to buildings and human lives.
Electrical control panels are a mainstay of every industrial and commercial building and often have additional circuits and load added over time reducing the required room inside to safely terminate correctly. Its these poor terminations or overloaded components that generate heat and start fires.
The electrical enclosure we protect for you might be a single panel or a room filled with electrical cabinets. We are seeing more and more building owners opt to install direct or indirect suppression systems into their electrical cabinets, switchboards and control rooms as part of their fire protection.
Cabinet suppression systems are quick and easy to install giving great peace of mind. Control Systems can design and install a Cabinet Fire Suppression System for you and put in place a testing and inspection programme to provide continued compliance and peace of mind.
Fire Sprinkler Systems
We are now offering design and installation of new sprinkler systems and ongoing maintenance and servicing of old Sprinkler Systems.
Fire Sprinklers are the most effective form of Fire Protection in a building. In new construction these also offer the added benefit of reducing the requirement for fire separation and fire rated construction, with a saving in this area it can make the installation of a Fire Sprinkler System almost cost-neutral. New changes to the New Zealand Building Code make sprinklers compulsory in high storage warehousing, cool stores and high risk environments such as spray-painting operations. Insurance Underwriters are now becoming more focused on high risk buildings such as those with polystyrene-based insulation or freezer panel. Many insurers now require fire sprinklers as a condition of insurance for freezer panel or polystyrene buildings and Fire Alarm Systems for most other buildings used for commercial production.
Our partners offer designs using software and hydraulic modelling to give you peace of mind before you start. Our team can offer you a complete design and build package to suit the installation in a new building, or the options to retro-fit into an existing site.
We can cater for a multitude of systems to suit your site, from wet pipe systems that are traditional but also options for dry pipe systems in low temperature areas where freezing may be an issue. Pre-action systems which prevent accidental operation and all systems will be designed and installed to the applicable New Zealand Standards and certified by independent accreditation bodies on completion. We can offer a comprehensive Service and Maintenance Agreement for your new or existing Sprinkler System that is clearly laid out detailing what you need to have completed when and the costs – so there are no surprises!
Discuss the best sprinkler system for you with our team now.
Fire Fighting Equipment
Fire Extinguishers are not required under the New Zealand Building Code, but can be required to support a Fire Sprinkler System for particular hazardous goods requirements, or even as a requirement for insurance cover.
Fire Extinguishers are still a very good way to stop a small fire from becoming life-threatening and devastating to your business so without them you have no hope to act quickly and minimise the damage and business interruption. If you think you can just evacuate and wait for the Fire Service, think again. In the five + minutes it might take Fire & Emergency New Zealand to arrive, an unchecked fire is likely to take over the entire building. If you are some distance from the nearest Fire Station or in a rural location that has a volunteer fire crew your wait time can be significantly more. Extinguishers can provide good fire protection.
If you are going to consider Fire Extinguishers, there are many options and one of our team will be able to give you the best options. Once you choose to go ahead we purchase direct from the importer so you get the newest product at a very good price. Given its more cost effective to replace most extinguishers 5 years after their manufacture rather than have them inspected and re-filled. This means our ability to supply newly imported product is hugely beneficial to you and could give you an additional 12+ months use compared with product provided by other suppliers. Once installed we can manage the servicing, testing and certification of your new or existing portable extinguishers, fire blankets and hose reels and offer very well priced one off replacements for those that are not economic to inspect and certify or need replacing.
Often our clients ask us to service and inspect their Hand Operated Fire Fighting Equipment (Fire Extinguishers, Fire Blankets and Fire Hose reels) at the same time we are carrying out the Annual Survey for their Building Warrant of Fitness (BWoF)
We can offer a comprehensive Service and Maintenance agreement for your new or existing Portable Extinguishers that is clearly laid out detailing what you need to have completed when and the costs for each – so there are no surprises!
Talk to our team about the right solution for you.
ABE Dry Powder
Excellent extinguisher for most types of fires and a very good extinguisher for novice users.
Dry Powder is ABE Rated and the extinguishers themselves are cheap to purchase and lightweight to operate, as well as achieving very good Fire Kill ratings compared to most other extinguishers because of a very quick knockdown effect.
The only downside to Dry Powder is that it is very messy and the powder (typically Ammonium Phosphate) is mildly corrosive, affecting printed circuitry such as electronic equipment particularly. ABE Dry Powder must never be used in the vicinity of aircraft, as it would be necessary to pull apart the affected area rivet by rivet, piece by piece in order to clean it and prevent corrosion.
Water
A very effective extinguishant for solely Class A (timber/paper/textile) fires with excellent cooling effect. Water requires little clean-up, it is cheap to refill and is favoured by areas which are likely to have malicious discharge of extinguishers regularly for both reasons.
Water however has very negative effect on all other fires and suffers from being bulky and awkward to handle as an extinguisher. It is dangerous to use on both flammable liquid fires (causing nasty eruptions), cooking media such as deep fryers (causing dangerous explosions) and energised electrical equipment (able to conduct electricity back to the operator) and must never be used in these situations.
Foam (AFFF)
Foam is a very good smothering agent and works well to control open flammable liquid fires if you have time to work the blanketing effect required, but does not have a fast knock-down like Dry Powder.
Foam is also very effective against Class A (timber/paper/textile) fires and achieves a better effect than water because of a higher surface tension. Although some AFFF extinguishers achieved a laboratory test of electrical non-conductivity of the spray, Foam Extinguishers must never be used on Energised Electrical equipment as this will pool on the floor and remain conductive.
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Carbon Dioxide is a specialised extinguishant for use on electrical equipment.
Being a gas, it seeks its way into equipment and will get at a fire in cabinets of equipment and switchboards. Being a gas, there is no clean up after use and is the only choice for server rooms, switchboards and computer suites.
CO2 achieves a very light flammable liquids rating, but will not extinguish a Class A fire as it only displaces the oxygen while it is being operated. Once the flow stops burning timber, paper or textiles will re-ignite.
Wet Chemical
Wet Chemical is a special agent for Class F (cooking media) fires and was developed as an agent because there is no other effective way of extinguishing a deep fat fryer involved in fire. Because the heat is so deep seated in a cooking fire, other extinguishants do not achieve both smother and cool effectively to prevent sudden reignition of the fire.
Wet Chemical is often insisted on in kitchens by insurance assessors and are an essential item in this instance. Wet Chemical also achieved a Class A (Timber paper textile) and Class B (flammable liquids) rating, but are really too small to be effective. Most wet chemicals are required to be refilled 3-yearly.
Fire Blanket
Fire blankets are excellent as an assistance for fires involving clothing. Fire Blankets are also excellent for use in working with small cookers and with fires in pots, however should be used with caution and as with all extinguishers should only be used by trained operators.
Sometimes mistakenly used to attempt to seal fire-rated penetrations in buildings, blankets only have their specific use in kitchens.