The IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital in Negrar, Verona, was one of the largest and most complex projects that fire safety product company Hochiki has been involved with in Italy as it meant the installation of multiple detectors, ten fire extinguishing systems, 14 gas detection panels and ten aspirating panels.
The hospital has eight buildings with more than 30 medical departments, operating theatres, offices, canteens, and conference rooms. In recent years, the hospital has undergone expansion. Hence an update to the fire detection system, for the safety of people besides the preservation of property, patient data and medical equipment. After assessments and a qualifying stage by the hospital and Amperia srl, the installation company, Hochiki fire detection systems and equipment were chosen. The hospital sought to avoid unnecessary and difficult evacuations, especially where some patients may find moving difficult; and, in some cases, impossible, especially for patients in critical care.
Some 26 fire detection panels, including Syncro and Hochiki’s Latitude panel, pictured, and two Vision remote panels were installed, all networked.
The project brief stated that it was important the systems and any devices had to be installed with minimum impact on the running of the hospital. Hochiki’s ESP range was recommended because these devices have been designed for quick install.
Another priority was that any fire detection needed to be able to alert every person in the building to an emergency, including the visually- and hearing-impaired. Hochiki’s range of VADs (visual alarm devices) were used to provide a visual indication of an alarm, to those people who would not normally be alerted to a fire by audible-only devices such as sounders and bells.
And the system had to be continuously monitoring. During the consultation between the installers and Hochiki, the fire detection system was designed to provide 24/7 monitoring. This was thanks to the I/O modules and fault alarm signals which were connected to the fire control panel loop. These were then monitored 24 hours, by two supervision systems, one for the fire detection system and one for the technological alarms.
Davide Montoli, Product Manager at Hochiki Italia, says: “An interesting aspect of our systems is the “bridge” communication between different generations of fire alarm control panels. In the case of this Hospital, the possibility of connecting the new L@titude control panels to the existing network of Syncro control panels made it possible to expand the system even though many years had passed since the installation of the original control panel. In fact, Hochiki’s L@titude platform can adapt its communication protocol to ensure backward compatibility with previous generation control panels.”
And Loris Fornaser, Technical Manager at the installer company Amperia srl, adds: “As you can imagine the fire safety standards of this project were extremely high due to the complex environment in which a hospital operates. This led us to choose a technologically advanced life safety product that would guarantee the client excellent performance and long-term reliability. The manufacturer’s technical support was always precise and Hochiki proved to be the ideal solution.”
