Our groundbreaking building and cladding fire suppression systems help tackle and suppress dangerous high rise building fires
Our groundbreaking building and cladding fire suppression systems help tackle and suppress dangerous high rise building fires
The past 15-20 years have brought us a global construction boom, especially in cities like Dubai, London and New York. Many of those buildings are architectural landmarks. This has presented new problems and dangers.
Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) panels are used in a very high percentage of these buildings, which has created perilous situations for residents, workers and firefighters.
Originally intended as a green initiative, most of the panels used in the past are made with recycled plastics for the core, which is highly combustible.
These panels have led to a spate of terrible disasters in recent years. We believe our groundbreaking building fire suppression and cladding fire suppression solution helps to tackle this dangerous situation head on.
Given there are thousands and thousands of these types of buildings worldwide, an economic, efficient and immediate solution is necessary.
The Dreadful Fire at Grenfell Tower, London 2017
IKU Fire Technologies has developed a fire suppression system for ACM panel clad and other forms of high rise buildings. It brings together some of the most advanced technology for fire detection and an innovative water and fire suppression delivery mechanism to help stop the spread of deadly fires at their source.
The fire detection system is a series of Infra-Red and Ultra Violet cameras normally used to detect fires in oil and gas fields. The cameras are sensitive enough to detect and isolate flame flicker. Once detected, they signal the control box to start the water delivery system.
The water/encapsulator mix delivery mechanism is already proven to work and is used in existing buildings in both Europe and the Middle East. The system flows a water liquid mix over the surface of the façade when activated and cools the ACM panels, suppressing typical fire spread.
Our system can be installed into any building, connecting to its own water and electricity supply. It is non-invasive and can be fitted in a matter of days.
Because our solution can retrofit to any building without any disruption, it can be fitted while residents are in situ and without the need to replace the cladding. This makes ours the cheapest, best and fastest solution to help overcome the issues of ACM panel cladding on buildings.
50 meters or 20 stories is the highest most firefighters can tackle a blaze on a building. That's if you can get close enough to deploy the ladders and have the water pressure. Our solution allows you to tackle external building fires on any and every floor no matter the height.
Radial heat detectors, flame and smoke detectors on every floor will easily determine the exact location of the fire and allow for the system to start to suppress the fire as close to the flashpoint as possible. Giving valuable effective suppressant against fire spread.
Having a water and fire suppression liquid delivering the mixture to the fire while it is at its very early stages, will cool the entire area both locally at the point of the fire, as well as above and below. Taking the heat out of the fire will break the triangle and stop the spread.
Our systems are designed to be retrofitted to every two floors of a high rise building, so the fire suppression will be just as effective on the 39th floor as it would be on the 3rd floor. The higher the floors, the harder it is to fight traditionally, so the more important it becomes to have a suppression mechanism.
By targeting the floor where the fire has started, the system can cool the floor above and below, therefore taking the heat out of the fire, cooling the surrounding floors and slowing the spread of the fire.
By suppressing the spread of the fire, there will be less debris falling down onto firefighters and escaping residents. ACP panel fires have proven to combust and spread very quickly (4 minutes for the entire building at the Address Dubai), so suppressing and cooling at floor levels is a great help for firefighters.
When fire teams arrive at a building fire, a huge number of decisions need to be made. Not least of these, is whether is it safe to enter the building to fight the fire. Building fires with ACP panels can spread very quickly, so it is hard for fire teams to assess the safety of tackling the blaze, which can hamper efforts to save lives.