Fire prevention professionals have an essential task in preventing fires by ensuring that buildings adhere to the set guidelines on multiple features. One such feature, which is important to consider during a plan review, is suppression systems. A fire suppression system refers to a group of units engineered with the sole intention being to minimize the spread of fire (McNeil & Lattimer, 2016). The system includes a set of components that aid in fire detection at the early stages with the aim being to reduce some of its underlying impacts, which are likely to occur through a spread. The system detects fires through heat, smoke, and other signals, which would trigger an alarm to alter those in the building of a possible fire after which further action will be taken. When conducting a plan review, fire prevention professionals should always consider the existence of a suppression system with the view to maximizing safety standards. Many of the fire suppression systems used today are automatic, which means that they trigger the automatic release of external substances, which would be of value in minimizing the spread of the fire; thus, advancing safety standards. However, some buildings may opt to use manual systems where the external substances are triggered manually after the detection of a fire, which should be automatic. The basic expectation is that every building should have a standard fire suppression system as part of its plan, which would be of great value in minimizing some of the underlying impacts associated with fire. For fire prevention professionals, the idea is to evaluate the functionality of the implemented to ensure that it works according to the projected expectations. The professionals are expected to undertake an in-depth review of how the system functions to determine its viability in promoting life safety for those occupying the buildings. Fire suppression systems are essential considering their benefits, especially in minimizing the impacts associated with fire hazards. Fireline (2013) notes that fire suppression systems, which have standard functionalities and life protection mechanisms, such as sprinklers and alarms, have the ability to reduce loss of life by up to 82% while reducing loss of property by 71% when dealing with any size of the fire. Using such data, what is most notable is the need for fire prevention professionals to come up with a standard allowing them to minimize overall fire risks. The basic expectation is that this would ensure that the safety standards in buildings are maximized through the guaranteed performance of the fire suppression systems. Another benefit of ensuring the functional efficiency of fire suppression systems is that they are safe considering that some of the systems not only minimize risks of physical fires but also reduce the concentration of harmful gases, such as carbon monoxide. Design professionals and building officials may show some resistance with regard to the plan review focusing on fire suppression systems. Therefore, fire prevention professionals need to outline that the review is part of the basic protocols that need to be undertaken before a building receives the necessary approvals. Before a building can be occupied, it must receive the necessary approvals with fire being one of the basic approvals. It is from this view that fire prevention professionals work towards establishing clear guidelines around the evaluation of fire suppression systems. In case of resistance to the amount of time taken to undertake this review, the professionals may indicate that the evaluation of these systems is especially important in promoting life and fire safety. The professionals need to point out that the evaluation of fire suppression systems is part of their professional objectives allowing for the overall improvement of safety standards in possible hazardous areas.
References
Fireline. (2013, November 15). The benefits of fire suppression systems. Fireline . Retrieved from https://www.fireline.com/the-benefits-of-fire-suppression-systems/#:~:text=Fire%20suppression%20systems%20integrated%20with,any%20type%20of%20commercial%20fire.
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McNeil, J. G., & Lattimer, B. Y. (2016). Autonomous fire suppression system for use in high and low visibility environments by visual servoing. Fire technology , 52 (5), 1343-1368.
