What Is a Commercial Fire Suppression System?

What Is a Commercial Fire Suppression System?

Whether your business functions in an office building, warehouse, or other type of commercial environment, it’s hard to exaggerate the importance of an effective fire suppression system. The ability to not only detect fires but suppress them before they spread (and spread they will!) can be the difference between a small business disruption and outright catastrophe.

What are the main components of a fire suppression system for commercial buildings, and what is the most effective fire suppression system for your business? Keep reading for the answers.

What Is Considered a Fire Suppression System?

An important component of any commercial property’s broad fire protection plan, a fire suppression system specifically relates to the timely suppression of a fire. There are several different fire suppression system types, which can also be combined to form a comprehensive system.

Depending on the environment, a commercial fire suppression system may use water, foam, or certain chemical compounds. It’s important to choose the right agent or agents for your business property in order to minimize damage and disruption.

What Is the Purpose of a Fire Suppression System?

The overall purpose of a fire suppression system is to detect and suppress fires quickly in order to mitigate the damage as much as possible. Just like in a residential fire, you want to make sure your people and property are protected.

Choosing the right agent and system for deploying makes a big difference. For example, picture a minor fire data server room. While a conventional sprinkler system might put the fire out, the water it uses is likely to damage a lot of expensive equipment. That’s precisely why clean agent fire suppression systems exist—to efficiently detect and suppress a fire without endangering any people or equipment.

What Are the 4 Types of Fire Protection Systems for Commercial Buildings?

A comprehensive fire protection system for a commercial building consists of a few key components, including:

1. Fire Detection: Smoke detectors, heat detectors, and flame detectors work to sense the presence of fire and its effects. Serving as a first line of defense, fire detection systems play an important role in helping businesses to minimize potential fire damage. 
2. Fire Suppression: True to their name, the role of fire suppression systems is to quickly and effectively suppress a fire, before it can get out of control. It’s best to work with a professional in order to find the right type of fire suppression system for your needs. For example, some businesses — like those with container handling equipment—may opt for suppression systems that use dry chemical powder for engine protection.
3. Fire Extinguishers: Portable fire extinguishers provide a convenient means for quickly suppressing small fires, and are an OSHA requirement for any commercial building. 
4. Passive Fire Protection: In the case of a fire that isn’t quickly suppressed, passive fire protection measures like fire-rated doors and partitions, fire dampers, and the usage of fire-resistant materials all help to slow its spread.

What Is the Difference between a Fire Suppression System and a Fire Detection System?

Simply put, a fire detection system is meant to alert occupants of a fire—and a fire suppression system is designed to quickly suppress it once detected. You really can’t have one without the other, as quick detection and effective mitigation go hand-in-hand within any environment.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that data shows that one in every 2,000 wind turbines will have a catastrophic fire at some point in its lifespan according to insurance estimates, an alarming number of wind farm owners and operators have not taken the step of installing automatic fire suppression systems.

What Are the Basic Steps of Fire Suppression and How Does a Commercial Fire Suppression System Work?

The basic steps of any fire suppression system are pretty straightforward—they detect, activate, and then suppress. Take Firetrace, for example. We offer a wide variety of fire suppression systems that can use different agents like clean agents, dry chemical, gasses, and aerosols. They can also be used with a variety of detection, from our traditional tubing to advanced sensors and control panels. This allows our special hazard fire protection options to be customized to your exact needs.

While there is plenty of variety in these systems, they all contain the same 3 steps:

1. Detect: Every system needs to know when there is a fire so that it can respond at the right time. Firetrace systems can use specially-designed tubing to automatically detect fires. Made of a flexible polymer, it can be installed virtually anywhere, including tight or difficult-to-access areas. Or, various sensors can be used to detect a fire, for example, when chemical compatibility is a concern.
2. Activate: When heat or flames are detected, the system activates. The detection method used will send a signal to the system to release the system. Whether pneumatically from the tubing or electronically from a sensor, this ensures the system works at the exact right time.
3. Suppress: Fire suppression agents work by eliminating heat or oxygen or otherwise disrupting the chemical reaction(s) a fire needs to grow. Based on the specific fire hazard and your needs, this could range from clean agents, dry chemical, gasses to aerosols.

Discover Our Commercial Fire Suppression Systems

When you consider the fire suppression system requirements of environments like manufacturing and machining facilities, electrical panels, and similarly-sensitive applications, it becomes clear that commercial fire sprinkler systems are just one component of an effective fire suppression program.  

Whether you need a fire suppression system for electrical panels, a fire suppression system for a server room, or a similar application, Firetrace can help. We offer direct and indirect release systems, and so much more. Talk to one of our experts today.