Question:
I have a question for the fire expert . I was doing a fire test with
the local fire marshall today and he was telling me the fire alarm and
detection system should have reported each location of each alarm to the
central station. Is this something new? The trend around here is for the
monitoring company to install a 2 line / 4 Zone dialer and run it off the
"Alarm & Trouble & Supervisory" dry contacts onboard. They report zone 1 as
fire, 2 as Trouble, and 3 as Supervisory. I understand it would be nice to
use a dialer designed for the panel "if it has one" to get the individual
zone reports. But is this code? What about in the case the panel also has
sprinklers hooked to it. Should there be a 4th zone to show Water Flow? or
is the Zone 1 general fire alarm enough?
Do you know about fire alarm and detection system?
Answer:The system as an annunciator at the main entrance that will show the area or
zone that is going off, including if its water flow. My question is what is
the central required to recieve. Currently it is Z1 Fire Alarm, Z2 Fire
Trouble, Z3 Fire Supervisory. I had the central fax a report to the FM
after the first day of testing was complete. The FM then told me he
"thought" the water flow had to report seperately to the central station.
He was not sure and I am not sure either. He told me he would find out and
get back to me. I was hoping to understand this better so I will be more
prepared in the future. The FM passed the inspection off yesterday, I was
not there for this test. So I am still not sure if it is a code requirement
or just good sense. The system currently does not report a seperate water
flow.
