Safety

New Early Warning System Makes Evacuation Alarm a Resounding Success

Aug 04 2009

UK based Tyco Traffic & Transportation’s (Tyco) specialist communications division, part of Tyco Fire & Integrated Solutions, has designed and installed a bespoke early warning system at the Royal Navy Oil Fuel Depot at Gosport, UK. The requirement was for a system that had both Alarm Warning Tones and Voice Announcement capability to provide a comprehensive warning system to persons living and working within a 1.5km area of the fuel depot that provides fuel to the nearby wharf where vessels of the Royal Navy are refuelled.

The dedicated system designed by Tyco incorporates a series of discs – known as ‘modulators’ each of which give 360-degree amplification; allowing the entire evacuation area to be covered from a single point, giving large savings on installation and disruption associated with deploying a conventional distributed system.

The modulators are stacked and mounted on an 11 metre column that was specifically designed for this project The column incorporates a central compartment to house all cabling and electronics internally, providing protection and security against vandalism and potential sabotage.

The alarm system is controlled by security personnel, via the security office, from which seven warning tones can be selected and broadcast in addition to voice announcements and instructions being issued via microphone.

The total system is battery supported, thus ensuring that the full alarm system is operational in the event of mains failure.

In addition, the system can be expanded to other sites if required. These additional sites can be selected and controlled via Windows based software by means of radio, either individually, as groups or as a total system. The system successfully passed initial rigorous acceptance tests undertaken in conjunction with Fleet’s emergency services and the local community. During these tests, the coverage exceeded the specification of 1.5km from the depot and the evacuation signal could be clearly heard over a 2km range. The full system has now been commissioned by Tyco engineers and accepted by BVT Surface Fleet (Support) and is fully operational.

Mark Gillespie, Project Engineer, BVT Surface Fleet, commented “The establishment has a duty of care to provide warning and information to the general public up to a 1000 metres radius from the fuel tanks. The system Tyco designed and installed has exceeded our expectations, having been clearly audible under test conditions some 1500 meters from the depot on the opposite side of Portsmouth Harbour. This has allowed the facility to continue with its obligations to the MOD having reassured the relevant licensing authorities that a compliant public information system is now in place.”