Situated to the East of London, London City Airport provides convenient access to London’s financial districts. It first opened in 1988 and has grown over time to become the UK’s 5th busiest airport. A new communication and control tower has been built as part of the expansion, and critical plant protection remains vital to the delivery of the services, including for operations continuity, protection from fire.
FirePro systems were selected to be designed, supplied and installed to a number of critical plant rooms serving the new control tower. The largest FirePro generators weigh just 27kg and were wall mounted within the protected space. This was a distinct advantage as there was no sacrificial floor space required to house mechanical fire suppression cylinders.
Another plus point that FirePro could easily demonstrate was the elimination of the need for over pressure vents, which for highly pressurised gas suppression systems, are a mandatory requirement. Over pressure vents are usually wall mounted, consuming space, and are specially calculated in size and quantity by each project. As there is only a negligible increase in pressure, when FirePro is released, in the protected space, there is no requirement for over pressure venting.
FirePro is all electrical and its fully modular formation is relatively light in terms of weight distribution by comparison with an equivalent high-pressure gas suppression system.The largest FirePro generators weigh just 27kg.An empty gas cylinder weighs about 40kg plus the weight of the agent and normally requires two people trained in safe transportation and handling, whereas FirePro is hand carried, with no transport restrictions.
It is a requirement of EN 15276 that all personnel involved with the safety systems are familiar with day to day use and system operation, including what to do in the event of an activation. Training was provided by FirePro UK with the key members of site staff, in order to ensure that the operating information could be passed on to all involved.
This is yet another example of seeing FirePro fire suppression as a key component in protecting life and essential assets against fire, in not just the UK’s aviation and transportation industry, but globally as many of the world’s airports have various assets protected by FirePro.
“We were very impressed with the fact that FireProUK were able to provide support and technical training to the airport fire team, and the appointed fire engineering specialist.FirePro appears to be simpler and more versatile in terms of end user management routines by comparison to traditional suppression systems. We will certainly consider the product on future projects.” - Airport Fire Officer - London City Airport
