Fire Alarm Design & Installation

Our expert fire alarm design team can design any fire alarm system either off plan or by survey and follow the job through right up to commissioning and Routine Maintenance.

We can design and install wide range of conventional, addressable & twin-wire fire alarm systems to suit your requirements and needs. 

When the need for a fire alarm system is established either by fire risk assessment or Fire Authority recommendation, it should be established what category the fire alarm system should be installed to. This will vastly depend on the type, size and use of the premises, weather or not the building will be used as sleeping accommodation or other higher risk activities will be conducted within it. Below is a guide to the fire alarm categories as defined in BS5839:1-2017.

BS 5839-1 defines eight categories of system, according to whether the system is purely manual or

incorporates automatic fire detection, and, in the latter case, the purpose and extent of the automatic

fire detection.

 

The eight categories of system are defined as follows:

Category M systems: These are manual systems and therefore, incorporate no automatic fire detectors.

Category L systems: These are automatic fire detection systems intended for the protection of life. They are further subdivided into the

following subcategories of system as follows:

• Category L1: Systems installed throughout all areas of the building.
• Category L2: Systems installed only in defined parts of the building, including all parts necessary to satisfy the recommendations of the code for a Category L3 system. The additional areas protected, over and above those protected in a Category L3 system, are those in which there is either high likelihood of fire starting or a high risk to life if fire does start.4 of 11 Guidance on Fire alarm Categories
• Category L3: Systems designed to give warning of fire at an early enough stage to enable all occupants other than, possibly those in the room of fire origin, to escape safely, before the escape routes are impassable due to the presence of fire, smoke or toxic gases. To satisfy this objective, other than in the case of very short corridors, fire detectors need to be installed in all rooms or areas that open onto the escape routes.
• Category L4: Systems installed within those parts of the escape routes comprising circulation areas and circulation spaces, such as corridors and stairways.
• Category L5: Systems in which the protected area(s) and/or the location of detectors is designed to satisfy a specific fire safety objective (other than that of a Category L1, L2, L3 or L4 system).

Category P systems: These are automatic fire detection systems intended for the protection of property. There are then two subcategories, namely:

• Category P1: Systems installed throughout all areas of the building.
• Category P2: Systems installed only in defined parts of the building.

 

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