In the city of Shymkent in Kazakhstan, the municipal authorities launched a pilot project to install carbon monoxide detectors in private houses. The aim; to help the socially disadvantaged, those most often affected by CO incidents.
Ajax wireless fire detectors were chosen, and are planned to be mass-installed in thousands of homes. In the beginning of the year, the city digitalization department of Shymkent in a trial, with the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the company ProLife, installed Ajax security systems in ten private houses for free. Each kit included an intelligent Hub central unit and a FireProtect Plus fire detector.
The alarm worked as follows: as soon as a dangerous concentration of CO accumulated in the air, the system alerted residents and sent an alarm to the security company. Lives have already been saved. In early March, late in the evening, the ProLife security company received an alarm from a FireProtect Plus detector (pictured) installed in one of the homes. As a result they found that the carbon monoxide content in the house was 0.3 per cent higher than normal; the cause was a gas leak in the tap of a stone oven. There were a mother and two children in the house, and this concentration of gas could have been fatal for them.
Why Ajax
Carbon monoxide is deadly for humans. At the same time, it is invisible; carbon monoxide has no colour or smell, so it can’t be sensed. Only specialised detectors can detect dangerous concentrations of CO in the air and they would cost. First of all, the cable laying costs are prohibitive, even before install.
The Ajax security system is the product firm says as reliable as wired solutions, but its installation requires fewer resources. Considering that not all residents of properties might agree to the installation of cables, installing Ajax was the solution for the municipality.
What’s next
At this point, the project involves installation of another 1,000 hubs and 1,000 detectors that register smoke, temperature spikes, and dangerous CO levels. First, the detectors will be installed in low-income households. According to the Kazakh Department of Emergency Situations, a similar alert system is planned to be installed in 30,000 residential buildings.
