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From the editor's desk: A burning issue

Andrew Seldon, Editor

Welcome to the first publication from SMART Security Solutions devoted to the fire industry. In the BMI report, sponsored by the Elvey Group, released earlier this year, fire was the smallest component of the physical security technology industry. Yet, it could be described as the most important (I’m sure some will disagree).

Nobody expects a fire in the business world, but preparations and procedures in case something happens are critical. Most people are unaware of how flammable many of the materials used in construction are, especially in office buildings and residential settings. Of course, industrial and manufacturing environments, including mining, are known high-risk areas and require more than a fire extinguisher placed at random intervals.

The issue with these technologies is that they are limited to detecting fire, smoke or gas, and can’t be used for operational issues to ‘justify’ their pricing (fire technologies and processes are an annoying expense until it happens). Nevertheless, they are a necessity and legislated. So even though they are a grudge purchase (more so than other security technologies), they are not something you can avoid, and neither are the regulations concerning building fire protection and building occupancy – as we have discovered in some recent catastrophes in South Africa.

When using cameras to detect fire, which we examine in this publication, the ability to expand beyond ‘only’ fire detection arises. The question is whether this is a good idea. Vendors will tell you how good their analytics and AI are at fire detection and throw in the benefit of visual verification – which is excellent. However, one has to ask whether using the same surveillance cameras for other use cases is a good idea. You don’t ever want to deal with fire beyond a braai, but if it happens, you want every tool at your disposal to detect it early and deal with it effectively.

This publication covers a few topics, including a large Product Showcase section. However, as always, we couldn’t fit everything in the print publication and will publish more online at www.securitysa.com. We will also include the ‘missing’ editorials in our weekly news briefs, so please make sure you are receiving them.

This is also the last publication that will come from SMART Security Solutions in 2024, so I would also like to extend my thanks to all the readers and advertisers for your support over the year. We are heading straight into preparing for the January issue, so we won’t be relaxing just yet, but I wish everyone well over the December break, and let’s hope next year is a good one.

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