Purpose: To explain the differences between traditional, water-based fire sprinklers and chemical-based fire sprinklers for special hazards.

Highlights:

• What are traditional fire sprinklers?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of water-based fire sprinklers?
• When should you use special hazard fire sprinklers?

All fires are not created equal, which means that different environments require different types of fire protection to properly protect buildings, equipment, and people.

For example, a traditional fire sprinkler system may work well in an office or warehouse. However, a data center filled with sensitive computer equipment would most likely suffer additional damage beyond that caused by the fire.

This makes selecting the optimal fire protection system—or combination of systems—a critical part of your fire safety plan.

What are traditional sprinkler systems?

 Traditional fire sprinkler systems utilize water as the fire suppression agent and have been around since the 1930s. Today, these systems are typically designed in a CAD system, and are often prefabricated prior to installation. They are manufactured to code at the local, state, and federal levels for fire safety.

The cost of these systems varies depending on the size and type of environment to be protected, use of the facility, as well as the kind of piping set-up chosen; determined by pipe length, size, and meter size. Traditional sprinkler systems are an effective means of fire suppression ideally for rooms and buildings containing replaceable assets.

Advantages and disadvantages of the traditional sprinkler system

There are a few advantages of employing a traditional sprinkler system. The use of water is the greatest advantage due to its environmentally safe qualities. The second advantage involves the automatic activation of the system upon detection, which enables fire threats to be extinguished quickly and effectively, mitigating damage, injuries, and death.

Although non-toxic, a major disadvantage of using water is its corrosive and conductive nature. If your environment contains sensitive components and equipment, a traditional sprinkler system has a high chance of destroying critical assets. Another drawback of this system involves the financial and operational costs that are associated with a triggered event.

What are special hazard fire suppression systems?

Not every situation and environment can be properly protected through a one-size-fits-all­ mentality. Special hazards fire suppression systems are designed to fill in the gaps left by traditional water-based sprinkler systems. These systems leverage different technologies, setups, and suppression agents to efficiently and effectively neutralize fire threats at a moment’s notice.

Cutting-edge advances in detection technology enable fast and accurate detection of smoke particles using specialized sensors and computer algorithms. When triggered, the system is then able to decipher the precise location of the threat and neutralize it within ten seconds.

There are numerous software programs and hardware add-ons that can be used to engineer safer and more effective systems that are more precisely tailored to your environment and circumstances. Through state-of-the-art video analytics software, special hazard fire suppression systems can also detect intrusions. They are being installed with a closed network of cameras alongside fire suppression systems to enable real-time visual control over the facility during emergencies.

In recent years, new clean agents have begun replacing old means of fire suppression such as Halon, a highly-effective but ozone-depleting compound that found its start in the 1960s. Today, clean agents such as FM-200 can neutralize a fire threat with smaller quantities of suppression agents while containing zero ozone-depleting properties. Foam-based agents for environments with high ceilings, large amounts of airflow, and sensitive equipment such as aircraft hangars have also made significant advancements.