The early Private Alarm Monitoring system and firefighters quick response helped avert a major disaster in Suva today.
The National Fire Authority was alerted through the PFA at 11:13 am which is connected to the control centre at the Suva fire station.
The fire crew arrived at 11:19 am and found smoke billowing out of the building.
The crew quickly made their way to the fire panel located on the ground floor to locate the area where the alarm was triggering from.
The alarmed was being triggered from the second floor where the air conditioning unit ventilator was engulfed in flames.
A dry powder extinguisher doused the fire and prevented a major fire disaster in the building.
The second floor of the building housed the Registrar General’s office.
The Suvavou building also houses the Attorney General’s office, Birth and Certificate office, Registrar General’s office and other Government department offices.
NFA Acting Chief Executive Officer Mr Jone Koroi said: “the early alert via PFA system enabled the firefighters to respond quickly to the scene and prevented a major fire disaster from occurring at the Suvavou house.
“The fire alarm monitoring system received an instantaneous fire status signal detected by the building fire protection system which is installed in the Suvavou house.
“The early alert through the fire alarm system and the quick response by NFA enabled the firefighters to contain the fire to the point of origin and stopped it from spreading to the other office premises located in this building.
“This is a good example of the proactive approach by the building owners for installing a fire alarm system connected directly and monitored by the NFA.
“We have seen such incidents lead to major disasters which can impact a lot of people through loss of income or jobs if the fire had been allowed to take its destructive path through the air conditioning unit ventilator. However, we are grateful that this did not eventuate – thanks to the early alert via the fire alarm system.
“This is the reason for NFA’s proactive approach towards fire safety compliance for every business in the country.
“Compliance with fire safety regulations will help minimize the impact of fires on their property and that of their neighbours. It will also help NFA efficiently and effectively mitigate the impact of these fires. These situations can be avoided or minimized with proper fire safety mitigating efforts by all concerned.
“Fire safety compliance is Government’s duty of care for its people through the National Fire Authority in order to protect your business from fires and therefore enhance Fiji’s economic growth prospects.”
NFA recommends that business owners, especially in the urban areas, have their buildings connected to NFA’s Private Fire Alarm monitoring system for early detection of fires.
This will ensure that the fire brigade is automatically alerted in the event of a fire.
NFA’s new fire alarm monitoring system is monitored 24hrs 7days/week from its control centre in Suva.
The new fire alarm monitoring system receives an almost instantaneous fire status signal detected by the building fire protection system. NFA will immediately be alerted via the Alarm Signaling Equipment (ASE) control panel.
The sooner NFA is alerted, the sooner the fire fighters arrive at the scene to put out the fire and lessen the impact of fire damage in the building or the property”, Mr Koroi added.
For further queries, please contact: Mileta Ting or Ritesh Kumar on Ph: 3312877 Fax: 3100303 Mb: 9771190 or 9987533 Website: www.nfa.gov.fj <http://www.nfa.gov.fj>