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Unique fire detection challenges in hospitals

Dominic Jeff

Africa’s healthcare sector has been highlighted as a major growth opportunity for business as new hospitals bring better health for millions across the continent. The fire safety industry has a key role in this success story by ensuring these long-desired new hospitals do not go up in flames – but fire detection in hospitals comes with numerous challenges.

While hospitals and clinics are generally perceived as safe places, they actually have a number of high-risk factors from a fire safety perspective. For example, in the USA, about 5700 medical facility fires are reported to fire departments every year – including more than 1000 hospital fires. Given the challenges of moving patients – some of whom may be on life-critical machinery and others in the middle of operations – each and every one of these fires must be detected very early to avoid a disaster. That requires a carefully designed aspirated smoke detection (ASD) system – the unique environment means no other method truly works.

Fire risks in hospitals

Although a major cause of fire is found to be from cooking equipment in the substantial catering operations that all hospitals rely on, more unusual factors also lead to blazes: the use and storage of highly flammable substances as well as the use of oxygen-enriched atmospheres; large, high-ceiling public areas with a high throughput of people; concealed ceiling and floor spaces; and the operation of complex medical machinery.

Plan to protect patients

The risks mean that fire safety planners have no option but to expect that there will be fire incidents in their hospital. These professionals are typically tasked with preparing a ‘defend-in-place strategy’ whereby patients are moved from the area of fire origin to an adjacent, protected, smoke-proof compartment. Ideally, this is done without requiring vertical travel in the building. The rest of building occupants follow safe evacuation procedure along egress routes with assured tenable conditions.

These provisions are commonly prescribed in codes and standards. However, the point at which the fire is detected makes a significant difference to the efficacy of such procedures – both from the point of safely evacuating patients, and protecting property and assets that are themselves of vital importance to many people.

Advantages of early fire detection

The aim of a fire detection system in a hospital should be to detect every incident as early as possible, ideally at its incipient stage. This is at the smouldering stage, which produces a small amount of smoke and no discernible heat. Conventional point-type detectors struggle to detect such small quantities and once the fire starts to grow to the level where they can sound the alarm, the incident is rapidly escalating. By actively sucking in air from multiple points in the room and passing it through a high-power detection chamber, ASD systems can detect these tiny fires. Still, there are unique challenges to early and reliable detection of smoke in healthcare facilities:

• The general areas of the hospital typically include large open spaces, some with very high ceilings and vertical openings.

• Treatment areas often include negative or positive pressure isolation rooms for enhanced hygiene.

• Cleanroom-graded labs, operating theatres and other sensitive areas such as medicine stores all have reduced access for device maintenance. In some cases, mobility-restricted areas can cover the entire patients’ ward or even a building to treat patients from prisons or those with highly transmissible infectious diseases.

Aspirating smoke detection overcomes challenges

These challenges can be overcome by using advanced ASD products and careful, informed design. For example, systems with powerful aspiration, sensitive detection chambers, and pipe layouts designed to sample at different room heights succeed in large open spaces. ASD also allows for the controller unit to be placed outside the restricted area, while pressure differentials can also be designed for.

Designed correctly, an early warning fire detection (EWFD) system using aspirating smoke detectors can be installed at a very competitive total cost of ownership compared to cheaper point-type detectors, because of its advantages in testing and maintenance.

Securiton design guide available

For fire professionals interested in the opportunities provided by Africa’s growing hospital sector, a free Design Guide for EWFD in Hospitals and Large Clinics is available from Securiton’s specialist knowledge library. Anyone can register and download it from https://www.securiton.com/en/applications/hospitals-and-clinics.

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