Comprehensive cover for local secondary school – Queen Elizabeth’s High School in Gainsborough
A team of engineers turned trouble-shooters when Queen Elizabeth’s High School in Gainsborough needed a complete new fire alarm system up and running in just one week.
The team from GBSG were on hand to work throughout the night and weekends to install a sophisticated new fire alarm system to ensure that Queen Elizabeth High School could open on time for the autumn term.
As a result of the old fire alarm failing during the summer, Mouchel – the outsourcing company which provides the building maintenance consultancy services to Lincolnshire County Council – had to race to put out a tender for a new system.
The contract was won by GBSG thanks to a superior system specification, which saw the innovative use of networked control panels that allows the site to manage incidents quickly and efficiently, from two different locations.
The other deciding factor was the GBSG ability to take on the installation within the tight deadline, and to get the system to a sufficient operational state quickly enough for the school to open on time.
System Details
The British Standard BS5839.pt1:2002 + A2: 2008 fire alarm system has two analogue addressable multi-loop control panels, which is monitored via Redcare Classic notification. These are installed in the receptions of the upper and middle schools and were networked so that in the event of activation, personnel can go to either panel and manage the incident. The analogue addressable system allows for each individual device to be viewed on LCD displays, providing an excellent aid to search and rescue.
Solutions were also introduced to manage specific environments, for example, laboratories that would require coverage using heat detection during the school day and smoke detection at all other times. The isolation of gas supplies to school boilers and kitchens, isolation of ventilation and controlled operation of fire shutter and doors were also incorporated into the system.
To allow the school to open for the new school year, the fire alarm system needed to have reached a sufficient operational state, and so the engineering team worked throughout the night as well as weekends to meet the very tight deadline. This achieved, the continuation of the install was managed to allow the school to function normally during the day without disruption to pupils and staff.
Customer Testimonial
“The majority of the works were carried out during evening and night shift periods to avoid impact on the school teaching programme through term time. The fact that this was successfully achieved with no complaints from staff is no mean feat considering the size of the school campus. Throughout the project, GBSG demonstrated proactive management to ensure unforeseen problems were dealt with promptly through close liaison with the site manager and his staff.”
Ian Stamp, Lead Consultant, Mouchel.
“The start of the new school year in September meant that the school was at full capacity, GBSG worked with the school so there wasn’t any impact on the day to day running of the school. As the installation progressed with the new system and the shrinking of the old failing system the school was always left with fire alarm coverage which was a real credit to GBSG’s installation team. With GBSG’s proactive way of working meant all mock exams ran without any re-rooming or inconvenience to the staff or students. Thank you GBSG.’
Chris Williamson, Site Manager, Queen Elizabeth’s High School.
