Sprinklers may be suitable for schools

摘要

A customised system of fire sprinklers could be made cost-effective for Australian schools, according to a paper presented at the Fire Safety Engineering conference in Melbourne last month.rnFire engineering consultancy Umow Lai conducted a cost-benefit analysis of sprinkler and fire detection systems in schools. It concluded that systems designed to Australian standards would be too expensive, but an engineer could design a customised arrangement of low-cost sprinklers that incorporates some of the requirements of the AS2118.4 residential sprinkler standard. Although a trial of the idea proved a failure, Umow Lai principal fire engineer Dr Weng Poh learnt valuable lessons and believes the concept is still viable.