In this article we will talk about some recommendations that a hotelier should follow when renewing their fire detection system in their establishment. By: Duván Chaverra Agudelo
The issue of security should always be present in a hotel and also prioritize it within the package of services offered to the guest. But sometimes it is worrying the lack of interest on the part of many hotels in Latin America that take a back seat aspects such as the protection of their establishment.
One of the most important areas of safety is that of fire detection systems, but at the same time it is the one that in many cases is given less attention, in most cases due to lack of knowledge and awareness.
It is for this reason that we will talk about the importance of you as a hotelier knowing when the renovation of your fire system should be carried out and for this we invite an expert in this area who has extensive experience on how to best implement this security technology in hotels. He is engineer Carlos Zorrilla, Sales Manager in Mexico for Honeywell Life Safety.
With him we will share some basic recommendations to which you as a hotel manager should pay much more attention if you want to avoid a fire emergency, which can be prevented if the necessary correctives are taken.
To begin, the guest considered it important to mention the aspects that must be analyzed when renewing the fire system: "Basically you must study the time of age of the equipment, the coverage it may have and if the previous system is perfectly designed to be functional, you must also take into account if the equipment you currently manage has received adequate maintenance."
Another aspect that the hotelier must analyze is the geographical point where his establishment is located, since due to natural causes the systems deteriorate to a greater or lesser extent. On the equipment that must be renovated due to wear and tear the guest commented the following: "It depends on where the hotel is located, for example, if it is located near the sea the contamination by salts deteriorates the equipment easily and needs to be renewed more continuously, as is the case with smoke detectors and manual stations, in addition to signaling such as horns, speakers, trumpets, among others".
Zorrilla recommends that the equipment should be modified in a period close to ten years, highlighting that it is possible that the system continues to work for more years, but technologically they lose validity and reliability.
The interest of hoteliers
Not only in hotels, but also in other types of commercial buildings, it is the case that their managers do not give the necessary importance to this kind of technology. When asked the sales manager of Honeywell de Mexico if he thinks hotels care considerably about renewing their fire system, the answer was resounding: "No. Generally in Latin America the greatest concern of hotels is to have a system that can cause international tourists to see that, in theory, they are protected and thus can access those tourist levels, but when it is a local chain they do not care about having these fire equipment, because as they are not receiving high-level tourism they are not interested in the security part in their hotels. "
However, Carlos acknowledged that there are hotel chains, especially the largest, that have a trained staff to whom they delegate security functions. "There are chains, especially international ones, that do have a security staff which is responsible for handling all these types of details. They know the equipment, they know what they need in the hotels or they seek help with the manufacturers and then they do their regular maintenance themselves."
To keep in mind
The guest mentioned the importance of installing fire systems in an appropriate way, which will allow a more reliable operation and better coverage of spaces: "At the time of the design of the hotel, all these types of systems must be taken into account. The sprinkler or extinguishing system has to go hand in hand with the detection system to see in which areas it has coverage and in which it does not, what type of devices should be installed and which should not, since the entire hotel cannot be protected. If the system has already been installed, what must be done is maintenance, but taking into account, as I mentioned earlier, the environment where the hotel is located."
There are also areas of the hotel that are not regularly protected with this equipment: kitchens, restaurants, machine rooms, laundries, among others are places where a fire can easily start, according to the guest.
Regarding the development of new equipment, Zorrilla said that there are no very new technologies, although he highlighted a product that makes an interesting contribution to detection systems: "In reality there are no very advanced designs, the same thing continues to be commercialized: photoelectric or ionic detectors, which are already coming out. We have a sensor that we call four dimensions, which has a photoelectric sensor, a thermal one, a carbon monoxide sensor that helps a lot to false alarms and an infrared; with these four technologies you can minimize false alarms by a fairly considerable percentage, since in many cases that is what hoteliers are most interested in, so as not to inconvenience their guests."
Carlos Zorrilla, sales manager for Mexico of Honeywell, ended this interview with the following comment: "I consider it very important that the hotel population such as managers, designers and other people who are dedicated to this type of establishments actually become aware of safety as such and do not do it only for the benefit that a fire system can bring as an image, because then you go to hotels where the system isn't even working or it's working halfway."
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