In partnership with FEMA, Sandia National Laboratories is designing and deploying a pilot alert and warning system to ensure effective communications during an emergency.
Health care organizations involved in the manufacturing, distribution and dispensing of pharmaceutical products recently announced a program to support continued delivery of medicines during a severe public health emergency.
THE world has changed over the past decade, and emergency preparedness and response must change, as well. Historically, disasters—either manmade or natural—affected only the relatively small number of people directly involved in an event. Today, with organizations operating in a global economy, private companies and governments may be affected by a disaster anywhere in the world.
- By Bob Browning
- Aug 17, 2007
INTELLIGENT, spot laser smoke detectors perform two distinct functions in a fire-protection system. Capable of sensitivities 100 times greater than standard smoke detectors, spot laser units respond to incipient fire conditions as low as .02 percent-per-foot obscuration. Also, laser smoke detectors, functioning like standard smoke detectors, go into full alarm mode, activating a building’s fire-alarm or fire-suppression system if higher thresholds—2 percent-per-foot obscuration—of smoke are detected.
- By David George
- May 02, 2007
TODAY'S fire alarm control panels are highly sophisticated systems that use innovative smoke and heat sensing technologies to deliver a rapid, intelligent response to fire emergencies. When activated, a fire alarm system is capable of performing hundreds of preprogrammed action sequences within a fraction of a second. Regardless of how technologically advanced a fire alarm control panel is its primary purpose is very simple—to save lives. Fire alarm systems notify building occupants that a fire emergency exists in the building.
- By Jayson Kneen
- Apr 02, 2007
SECURING the flow of oil from offshore platforms, land-based drilling rigs and pumping stations across miles of pipeline and infrastructure is a top priority for the government and the petroleum industry.
- By Brooks McChesney
- Jan 24, 2007
POLITICAL party officials are fond of telling the public they have a "big tent." That is, their programs are big enough to cover a wide range of interests. In the past few years, the fire alarm industry has actually been delivering on that same promise.
After returning from a business trip earlier this week, I undertook the all too familiar task of sorting through mail, newspapers and magazines that had accumulated during my absence. Among the articles were a number of stories from different parts of the country that reported about local officials having ordered evacuations of neighborhoods because of the release of toxic gases. The largest incident, in North Carolina, required 17,000 residents to evacuate their homes -- from a town of 28,000. The residents were ordered out because of a fire at an industrial site, a hazardous waste business that housed a variety of volatile chemicals, including chlorine. These toxic releases were not related to acts of terrorism, but do highlight the inherent danger of living near chemical facilities
FOR the past 15 years, the global terrorist threat has manifested itself through many different targets and methods.
- By Hugh Greville
- Nov 01, 2006
- By Jack Ogden
- Oct 01, 2006
A leading detector manufacturer recently recalled smoke/heat detectors that had been manufactured over a period of several months last year.
- By Bill Rossiter, Rick Heffernan
- Oct 01, 2006
OREGON State University has made fire and life safety a real priority.
- By Christa Poss
- Sep 01, 2006
ONE of the top attributes that building owners, managers and electrical contractors look for when choosing fire notification devices is compliance with local, state and federal building codes, which are created by organizations such as the International Code Council and the National Fire Protection Association.
- By Charlie Fisler
- Sep 01, 2006
MAJOR media outlets focused on Reno, Nev., on June 12, when family court judge Chuck Weller, 53, was critically wounded by a single, sniper bullet from the third story of a parking garage more than 300 feet away from his courthouse office.
- By Brad Wiggins
- Sep 01, 2006
ALTHOUGH smoke detection in homes and commercial buildings has been in use since the 1960s, there have been few significant advancements in the technology until recently.
- By Tom Hauder
- Sep 01, 2006
WHETHER it's an earthquake in Los Angeles, a tidal wave in New York or a terrorist attack in Washington, D.C., the only way first responders can truly be effective is by leveraging a command center solution that ties together disparate public and private security systems into an east-to-use, yet powerful solution.
- By Leslie Thomas
- Aug 03, 2006
WHEN a fire alarm goes off, everyone needs to listen.
- By Brent Dirks
- Jul 01, 2006
FIRE and life safety are as much a part of security as any one device in the industry. The fact of the matter is the fire and life safety industry is an early-warning activity that protects people, property and business interests.
- By Security Products Staff
- Jul 01, 2006