Frequently Asked Questions

Loss or damage to physical assets can have a potentially devastating effect to an organisation's survival. Automatic fire sprinkler systems can form part of a package of risk management measures providing a security blanket should fire occur. For over 100 years, sprinkler systems have been helping to prevent the associated costs and interruption effects of a serious property loss that can prejudice a company's viability for an extended period. Approximately 40% of companies that experience a major fire never recover.

Only the sprinkler head or heads in the fire vicinity operate - statistics show that in around 60% of fires only 4 sprinkler heads operate.

In a fire the hot gases in the fire plume rise and operate those sprinkler head/s nearest the fire. Once activated water flows via the valves and pipework to the sprinkler head and is discharged onto the seat of the fire. Only the sprinkler head/s activated by the heat will open allowing water through. You could picture each as an individual fire fighter, on duty 24 hours a day.

The most common activation temperature for sprinkler heads is 68°C (with a wide range of other temperatures available) which means that a sprinkler head won't false alarm when someone burns the toast or smokes a cigarette.

Worldwide records show only 1 in 16 million installed per year will result in a failure. Every single sprinkler head is independently tested before leaving the manufacturing plant.

Most sprinkler heads discharge somewhere between 50 and 100 litres a minute and do so within a few seconds of the fire producing sufficient heat to trigger a sprinkler head. Fire fighters can discharge between 600 to a 1000 litres a minute from a single hose and do so many minutes after a fire alarm has been raised. It is easy to see that a fire that has been allowed to grow unchecked is likely to be significantly larger and therefore require significantly more water to tackle. In tackling the Windsor Castle fire in 1992, the fire service used over one million gallons (4.5 million litres) of water.

Everything costs something - but a balanced view needs to be taken of the real benefits provided. Examples include:

• 'Trade off's' or more accurately 'trade-ups' are often permitted when a building is fully sprinkler protected. These include increased sizes of compartments, longer travel distances to fire escapes, reduction in passive fire compartment ratings and therefore fire doors.
• Many insurers will offer premium discounts on the fire part of the premium depending upon the hazard type and will often remove or greatly reduce the excess figure for fully sprinkler protected buildings. This effectively means that a sprinkler system can not only reduce the loss from fire but will also pay for itself over a given time span. Thereafter companies continuously reap the benefit of reduced premiums.

With a long life span maintenance is minimum, requiring a visit generally only every 6 or 12 months.

This is true - but systems can be modified to take in any changes - it does not mean a new system is needed every time.

Third party certification provides assurance to construction industry end users and regulators that if a 3rd party contractor is appointed, the work will be carried out correctly, in accordance with recognised industry standards and product manufacturer requirements to provide the required fire protection for the building as intended by the specifiers.

Our name represents what we do. Pyro roughly translates as Fire in Latin (and can be taken as heat or high temperature) and Protection, well that is the act of protecting or the state of being protected; preservation from injury, harm or loss in English. Of course in conversation our name is occasionally misheard, some people think we provide cases for one of the world's most popular ballpoint writing instruments.