Blog

This is James, he’s one of our up and coming engineers. The picture shows him working on a panel which is twice his age, described by the client as looking pre-war! (not James that is)

Proper engineering

There are no PCB’s (printed circuit boards) in this panel, just relays, fuses and a few old electronic components. The client at  this site wanted to know if it could be repaired, and here we are working on it, of course they should be considering replacing it for a modern system, however by repairing it we can increase the life of the system to allow time for consideration to be given for a proper risk assessed upgrade.

All in a days work for our engineers.

PS Barry Leeds is taking the picture and Barry is about the same age as the panel!

Hochiki – HRE PRODUCT RANGE DECLARED OBSOLOTE

The HRE range of detectors, including models – AIA-E, ALA-E, ALA-E2,
ALA-E3, ALB-E and the conventional detectors SIF-24, SLG-E, SIC-E and
SIF-E was declared obsolescent approximately 10 years ago. Since that time Hochiki Europe has offered its customers a cleaning, repair and recalibration service for these devices.

However, the lack of availability of replacement parts and our limited ability to recalibrate these devices has resulted in our decision to withdraw this service as of 31st March 2012.

We will still continue to offer a disposal service for these devices.

If you have an existing HRE system, please contact our Sales Department on 0845 481 0307 to see how you can upgrade to our latest ESP system.

British Summer Time Sunday March 25th  Wake up! Check your smoke alarm!

WFP Essex based Fire and Security experts are urging the

Public to make sure they test their smoke alarms when,

they change their clocks on Sunday March 25. 

The start of British Summertime is the perfect opportunity to make sure that smoke alarms across Essex are in full working order.

You should have a smoke alarm on each level of your home, and test the battery at lease once a week.

Last year nearly a third of the homes which had fires in Essex did not have a working smoke alarm. Paul Field Managing Director of WFP says “Smoke alarms are proven life savers, they give early you those precious few minutes of warning which could help you and your family to get out safety, smoke alarm is the most important piece of equipment in any home, it can save lives by warning or waking you when the worst happens. Without that warning just three breaths of toxic smoke from a house fire is enough to kill.”

Changing clocks to British Summertime is the perfect reminder to check the smoke alarms in your home. 

“You’re four times more likely to die in a fire without a working smoke alarm, but only half of people who own one say they take the time to test it regularly. 

“We’re all losing sleep at the start of British Summer Time, testing your smoke alarm could save you from losing a lot more. As you put your clocks forward on Sunday 25 March, take an extra moment to push the button on your smoke alarm – it could save your life.

For more information on Fire Safety visit www.w-fp.co.uk or call 0800 988 3312

WFP Top 10 Fire Safety Tips

1. Fit a smoke alarm and check it regularly.

2. Make a fire action plan so that everyone in your house knows how to escape in the event of fire.

3. Take care when cooking with hot oil and think about using thermostatically controlled deep fat fryers.

4. Never leave lit candles unattended.

5. Ensure cigarettes are stubbed out and disposed of carefully.

6.  Never smoke in bed.

7.  Keep matches and lighters away from children.

8.  Keep clothing away from heating appliances.

9.  Take care in the kitchen! Accidents whilst cooking account for 59% of fires in the home

10.   Take special care when you are tired or when you’ve been drinking, half of all deaths in domestic fires happen between10pm and 8am

Our newest member of the team starts on Monday 13th February 2012!

After a month of reviewing CV’s and carrying out interviews we have appointed the newest member of the team; Bill Martin. (Picture to follow after induction on Monday, sorry Bill!)

The reason we have employed Bill is to make sure that we  continue to keep up our customer service levels at a high standard; returning quotes to you in a timely manner, responding to your valuable enquiries, dealing with queries and generally supporting you properly.

In welcoming Bill Martin to the WFP team I am pleased to say that, not only does he bring a great attitude and energy, but on top of this, experience in CCTV, Intruder and Passive Fire Supression, he has been very hands on with his early career fitting in nicely with our practical team of professionals.  You may well meet Bill on site surveys as he will be spending a considerable amount of time out of the office with our Sales Manager (Greg Reeves). He will be shadowing Greg whilst he gets to grip with our way of supporting our customers and will then be integrated in to our customer support system, his job role with WFP will be;

• Taking and progressing new sales enquiries
• Carrying out site surveys for maintenance quotations
• Small works quotes
• Designing new systems and presenting solutions
• Supporting our valued customers as part of a focused and dedicated team.

Paul Field 

Managing Director

10/02/2012

Part of the extensive Dorgard Range

Dorgard – Fire Door Retainer We’ve all seen or done it before! A fire door wedged open on a hot sunny day or the fire door propped open so that people can easily pass, however it is illegal and dangerous to do this, in fact it is a direct contravention of Fire Safety regulations in the UK. In the event of a fire, this hazardous practice will result in the fire spreading quicker, causing more damage and putting people’s lives at risk. Dorgard enables you to legally and safely keep fire doors open, by allowing the door to close when the fire alarm sounds preventing the spread of fire and smoke. Installed onto the bottom of the fire door in under 5 minutes, Dorgard is listening for a continuous fire alarm of 65dBA or higher. Features: Wireless unit with fail-to-safe technology Improves access throughout buildings in line with the Equality Act 2010 Complies with BS EN 1155 and accepted by the Fire and Rescue Service Available in a variety of colours and finishes Automatic night-time release facility Complies with BS 7273-4 category B Adjustable sensitivity CE marked Inexpensive to buy, Dorgard fire door retainer requires no wiring as the unit is battery operated and is fitted to the bottom of the fire door using 4 screws. Dorgard can also be leased, the cost of which includes installation, annual servicing and full warranty for the term of the contract. As with all fire safety devices, a Fire Risk Assessment should be carried out prior to installation. Please contact us for a quote or for more information on our wireless fire door retainer.

1-2 Loop 64 Zone digital protocol panel

2012 will see the launch of the new Notifier Pearl Panel

This is Notifiers most advanced system yet and boasts some impressive statistics from the 1 or 2 loop launch panels;

1. 318 devices per loop (Split between modules and detectors), this could save
2. Full utilisation of the Notifier innovations such as the Smart 3* and Smart 4** detectors
3. Backwards compatible with older CLIP devices and impressively the ID3000 networks
4. Loop powered remote indicators, these can be wired anywhere on the loop and be programmed to operate upon the activation of any detector

Installation innovations

Fire safety convictions
Friday 08 July 2011

Business owners and companies contracted to provide Fire Risk Assessments to businesses are being advised to pay greater attention to Fire Safety legislation following the sentencing of two Mansfield men at Nottingham Crown Court today.

David Liu, who runs The Dial Hotel and Market Inn, both in Market Place, Mansfield, was jailed for 8 months and ordered to pay £15,000 costs after pleading guilty to 15 Fire Safety offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

John O’Rourke, who runs Mansfield Fire Protection Services, Mansfield, was also jailed for 8 months and was ordered to pay £5,862.38 after he pleaded guilty to two breaches of Fire Safety requirements in relation to the inadequacy of Fire Risk Assessments he provided for Mr Liu’s hotels.

The Judge said that the time had come to send out a message to those who conduct Fire Risk Assessments and to hoteliers who are prepared to put profit before safety.

Fire Protection Officers from Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service had visited both premises and found that the fire precautions which should have been provided to protect residents and employees in the event of a fire were inadequate. This presented a serious risk to the lives to Mr Liu’s customers and staff, so they issued prohibition notices preventing any further use of both premises as hotels until suitable improvements had been made.

Mr Liu was prosecuted because he was the responsible person for both premises, and failed to make sure they were safe for customers staying there. Mr O’Rourke was prosecuted because he carried out Fire Risk Assessments at both hotels, but those assessments were wholly inadequate.

Today Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service is reminding all owners and occupiers of buildings of their legal responsibility to protect their customers and staff against the risk of fire and warning them that, where necessary, action will be taken against anyone found to be in breach of Fire Safety regulations.

Ian Taylor, Fire Protection Group Manager at Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “It is a legal requirement for places of work to have a Fire Risk Assessment. Guidance on Fire Risk Assessment and Fire Safety measures appropriate for different types of premises are available on the Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service website and also on that of the Department for Communities and Local Government. The guides are to assist employers to undertake a Fire Risk Assessment.

“If employers are unsure about their own ability to undertake a Fire Risk Assessment within their premises they should seek advice from a competent person. In ascertaining someone’s competence to provide Fire Safety advice I would encourage people to ask for references, be aware of what Fire Safety training and qualifications they have and check to see if they are registered or accredited with an appropriate third party body.”

Further Fire Safety advice and guidance upon all types of premises is available at http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/firesafety/firesafetylaw/

The new generation of radio system

FireCell is a fully analogue addressable fire detection system with a set of features making it one most advanced fire detection systems available – all without the need for cable.

The standards changed in March 2011 and although the Firepoint 5000 remains in service for additions and temporary solutions, the new FireCell uses the new EN54 868 frequency which is required to comply with the incoming standards, what this means for the user is that the best selling radio solution in the UK has;

• Highly developed in the UK  and as a consequence has improved speed of operation and synchronisation of sounders
• Comes as standard with wired loops with the control panel meaning that the system is now more flexible for the user
• The system can now run a combination of wired and wireless devices all reporting back to a single control point
• Improved range of sensors with addition of Apollo (The UK based industry leader in smoke and heat detection manufacturing) devices to the range
• Retains the use of Alkaline batteries – which makes commercial sense not just for the price but the sheer availability for the customer providing choice and not tying the customer to limited providers
• All manufactured in the UK, with the manufacturer supporting the radio surveys and with a massive 5 year product warranty

EN54 Compliance in one complete system

The systems incorporate industry standard sensors and each device is powered with an alkaline battery pack. The devices communicate with the controllers using secure, fully compliant, dual frequency signalling.

The system consists of the following components:

analogue addressable fire sensors are based on industry standard devices.

The sensors have no visible aerials and are low profile, aesthetically pleasing designs. Each device is powered by an alkaline battery pack.

Providing reliable fire detection solutions for most applications the comprehensive sensor range includes:

Smoke Heat and Multisensors

• Optical smoke
• Heat
• Multi-Sensor, combining both smoke and heat
• Combined Sensor with Base Sounder or Voice Sounder, available with either smoke, heat or multi-sensor heads
• Combined Sensor with Base Sounder or Voice Sounder, available with either smoke, heat or multi-sensor heads and an LED strobe

Radio Connection Diagram

Last week our engineers underwent the Destiny pen training and we launched straight into the trial of the new digital engineers forms.  So far it has been a great success and apart from a couple of user errors has lived up our expectations.

Magic Pen

For those of you who are unaware of these ‘magic pens’ I will explain below;

The pen is a normal ball point pen with a twist, it has a camera inside, when the pen is used to write on the special engineers sheets they use software and a matrix of tiny dots to reproduce an image of the written document which is then passed to the engineers phone via bluetooth and emailed straight to our service desk for processing.

Customer Benefits

1. Digital copies of the witten work sheet, whilst still providing the paper copy for evidence meeting statutory requirements
2. Vastly improved speed of transfer of information, i.e. a written report to enable our technical services manager to accurately provide reports and quotations for urgent remedial works
3. Quick invoices for the work carried out, no longer having to wait for the sheet to be returned to the WFP office for processing as this process starts as soon as the data is transfered from the engineers phone

WFP have worked hard to improve the speed of service whilst retaining the quality of the information provided, the use of the magic pens is just another step on the road to our stated goal; ‘To be your trusted professional advisors for Fire & Security’