Sheldon Extinguisher Co. Inc.

If you want a fire protection system that's fit for a large structure, your best bet would be an intelligent networked system. Essentially, such a set up allows multiple control boxes and devices to communicate with each other, thus ensuring that the whole system doesn't fail should some components get damaged or destroyed.

What is a Class A fire? This is the most common type of fire and is caused by the burning of ordinary materials such as paper, wood, cloth and plastics. These fires are typically fought with water and foam extinguishers that work by eliminating heat and smothering the fire.

One of the least expensive, yet most effective fire protection equipment items you can have would be fire extinguishers. These devices allow you to react quickly should a fire break out, giving you a chance to limit any damage or at least buy emergency services some time.

Have you ever wondered how fire sprinklers activate? The heads make use of fluid-filled glass bulbs that are set to fail at specific temperatures. Typically, the bulbs fail when the heat source is nearby thus ensuring that the water released will have an immediate effect.

While you may think that all fire extinguishers are the same, the truth is, they aren't. Class A fires (ordinary combustibles) for instance, can be extinguished by a water and foam extinguisher but a Class K fire (cooking oil and grease) will require a wet chemical extinguisher.

To keep a fire burning, all elements of the fire trianglea heat source, fuel and oxidizing agents have to be present. If you eliminate just one of these components, the reaction will immediately stop and the flame will consequently go out.

If the weather in your area varies, one fire protection system you can have installed is a hybrid sprinkler. Also known as a wet and dry sprinkler, the pipes in this system are charged with water for as long as the temperature is above freezing, but will switch to dry mode when colder weather arrives.

Did you know that fire sprinklers help save water? Should a fire break out, a sprinkler will discharge a minimum of 60 liters per head per minute. A single fire hose on the other hand, will discharge 500 liters in the same period.

Did you know that the water supply for sprinklers come from different sources? In low to medium risk structures, the sprinklers can be fed from the town's mains. In heavy risk structures however, the water comes from huge reservoirs that are connected to powerful pumps.

A conventional fire alarm is one that divides a structure into zones in order to identify where a particular fire is burning. As such, the control box for this system has a lot of input ports so that multiple detectors can installed in many areas.

An addressable fire alarm system is one in which the individual sensor modules can be assigned addresses. These addresses then indicate what locations they're in, thereby doing away with the zoning that's used by a conventional alarm.

Among the most useful fire protection devices you can install in your home are smoke detectors. These instruments can potentially save your life and property as they will buy you the time you need to either fight the blaze or evacuate.

In order for a fire alarm system to work, it's going to need sensors to tell it about the environment. As such, different detector types are used to ensure effectiveness. Some of these detectors include: smoke, heat and carbon monoxide detectors as well as manual break-glass call points.