Historic Theater Add System Sensor Fire Detector

  • Aug 01, 2012

First opened in 1929, the Egyptian Theatre in DeKalb, Ill., is listed on the National Registry of Historic places. In 2010, the aging building and fire system were in need of upgrading and renovation. While the Egyptian's existing fire/sprinkler system was grandfathered in from a code perspective, officials felt that this "jewel of the city" should not only receive an aesthetic and structural upgrade, it also required a more modern and effective life safety system to protect the historic structure and its patrons.

One major area of focus for the new fire alarm system was to eliminate false alarms. Because it hosts live performances that often use theater smoke, there is a high potential for theater smoke to seep through auditorium doorways and into the lobby, dressing rooms, and other areas. This could potentially cause nuisance alarms in traditional smoke detection technologies. This type of nuisance alarm would not only require a performance stoppage, it would also require a potentially dangerous evacuation of large numbers of patrons, performers, and staff...

An important goal of the new system was to cover key areas of the facility with fire detection, including the areas previously susceptible to nuisance alarms. For these areas, [the system designer] suggested the use of the award-winning System Sensor Advanced Multi-Criteria Fire Detector, branded as IntelliQuad™ by NOTIFIER, after having seen the detector in action at a recent NFPA convention...The detector is ideal for the most challenging applications where accurate fire detection provides a serious challenge for traditional detectors  -  especially applications where nuisance alarms can threaten life safety or interrupt mission-critical and revenue-generating activities, such as live performances.

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