Better protection at Barts
Patients, staff and visitors to one of London’s top hospitals are better protected thanks to a new Apollo Fire Detectors Discovery® system specified by fire alarm specialist Static Systems Group (SSG) and leading construction and development company, Skanska.
St Bartholomew's Hospital (commonly known at Barts), is a leading, internationally renowned teaching hospital based in the Capital, offering a full range of specialist services, including centres for the treatment of cancer, heart conditions and fertility problems.
The nine-storey building comprises of hospital wards with 250 beds, day procedure units, service departments and public areas with an average site occupancy of up to 6,000 people at any one time.
Skanska was appointed as the main contractor for a development project on behalf of Capital Hospitals Ltd and Barts Health NHS Trust. Skanska selected alarm and systems communications provider, SSG, to design, supply, and install a new complex fire system for the new hospital which, in turn, recommended Apollo’s Discovery® range based on its previous positive experience.
The new fire detection system installation followed Skanska’s two phases of both new build and refurbishment works at Barts, where the construction of a new concrete framed clinical facility consolidates the existing, widely spread hospital operations into a single purpose built unit.
In total, more than 6,500 Apollo Discovery® units are installed throughout Barts, including over 5,000 Multisensor Detectors and 1,000 Manual Call Points. The fire alarm control system consists of 28 networked Series 900 Evo panels.
The Level 1 system, which monitors more than 300 zones, interfaces with automatic fire dampers, air handling units, door closers, security doors, sprinkler flow, gas valves, lifts and smoke extractors and purge fans. As required by the Hospital Technical Memorandum (HTM), in the case of a fire, the building is evacuated on a horizontal phased basis.
As a busy hospital, there were a number of factors that needed to be taken into consideration in the fire system design. Special attention was given to audible and visual alarms in public areas e.g. waiting rooms and associated circulation spaces, as well as areas of high ambient noise such as plant rooms. There are also a number of potential causes of false alarms which had to be factored in to the design, such as cooking facilities, contractors working and the high volume of general public access.
The main works were carried out over two phases with the first phase being completed, occupied and operating as a fully functioning hospital in advance of the second phase being installed. Cause and effect testing and proving was carried out separately for both phases as part of the construction programme. However, as the two networks needed to ultimately be combined onto one common network, the final integration of phase two with the first phase required considerable logistics and planning to avoid unnecessary disturbance to patients and staff.
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