The capabilities of Siemens Cerberus PRO to perform effectively in harsh environmental conditions is being demonstrated in a project to protect one of North London’s busiest recycling facilities.
Islington Waste Recycling Centre is operated by Islington Council and is one of seven refuse and recycling sites in North London which collectively manage 820,000 tonnes of waste and recycling each year. Such facilities present their own specific challenges in terms of effective fire detection, with the scale of the problem illustrated by what are referred to as 300 ‘significant fires’ attended throughout the UK by the fire and rescue services annually.[1]
Waste sites process mixed recyclable waste which is collected, sorted, stockpiled and processed from a number of materials including plastics, paper, cardboard, wood and rubber. Many are highly combustible and susceptible to potential ignition from the processing machinery through which they are handled.
The Islington Waste Recycling Centre had an existing 20-year-old fire detection system which required a significant upgrade to meet the new challenges of waste management, including the proliferation of disposable vapes and the threat of battery fires which are proving a more recent addition to the fire risk.
TP Fire and Security is a long-standing provider of fire detection and alarm services to the Islington Council. From its three offices in Norfolk, Essex and the Midlands, TP offers a nationwide service in the design, installation and maintenance of fire safety systems. The company has been part of the Siemens approved partner programme for a year, having identified the opportunity to work with Siemens when Tom Warner joined the business as a fire safety engineer. Tom had previous experience of partnering with Siemens and when the Islington project came up, he recognised the potential for employing the Cerberus PRO system.
One of the challenges of the waste site was the inevitable dusty environment. Siemens ASA (advanced signal analysis) detectors match the conditions of a particular site through their application-specific ASA parameter function. This allows the detectors to distinguish between a real fire and deceptive phenomena such as dust, thereby providing immunity from false alarms.
Kevin Harris is Technical Design Manager at TP Fire and Security. Commenting on the project he said – “The Cerberus Pro system was perfect for this environment, with the detectors’ particular capability to operate in such a dusty environment. The project went very well, taking some seven days to complete, all while the waste facility was open and operational.”
Three Cerberus PRO panels are operating across the site, interfacing with Siemens ASA detectors and call-points through the existing compliant cabling. 69 ASA detectors are located in the basement, 38 on the ground floor, 52 on the first and second floors (including the plant room), 74 in the tipping hall and 42 in the offices.
Siemens has extensive experience of protecting similar waste processing facilities worldwide and worked closely with TP Fire and Security to develop a comprehensive solution which meets all fire safety regulations and standards. The Cerberus PRO system provides quick and reliable protection in the small window that exists to react and prevent a small fire becoming a potentially major incident in such a harsh and hazardous environment.
[1] NFCC (National Fire Chiefs Council)
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