• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.30-40
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• 2020

In the event of a fire and a disaster, prompt and accurate alarms inside and outside the building are directly related to the minimization of damage and the success of life evacuation. However, due to unwanted fire alarms in automated fire detection systems, the number of dispatches by misunderstanding in the 119 service is increasing. This causes the insensitivity to the safety of building managers and the waste of the fire-fighting power. Therefore, in this study, the statistical databases and literature on unwanted fire alarms in Korea and abroad (USA, UK) were identified and the management systems for unwanted fire alarms were compared and analyzed to identify problems of statistics in the management systems for unwanted fire alarms.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.14-21
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to apply the signal pattern recognition technique to the digital wireless fire-alarm system and to reduce unwanted fire alarms. In this study, the fire alarms of the K Institute, which operates the largest digital wireless fire-alarm system in Korea, were classified into normal operations and unwanted fire alarms, and these were analyzed and compared with actual fire signals. In addition, by designing a non-fire signal filter and applying it to the K Institute, we confirmed that the monthly unwanted fire alarm rate of all 5,713 detectors decreased sharply. In particular, the unwanted fire alarm rate for flame decreased from 1.09% to 0.11% and the unwanted fire alarm rate for smoke decreased from 0.65% to 0.035%.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.69-75
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• 2022

Fire-alarm systems are safety equipment that facilitate rapid evacuation and early suppression in case of fire. It is highly desirable that fire-alarm systems have low false-alarm rates and are thus reliable. Until now, researchers have attempted to improve detector performance by applying new technologies such as IoT. To this end, IoT-based fire-detection systems have been developed. However, due to scarcity of large-scale operational data, researchers have barely studied malfunctioning in fire-alarm systems or attempted to reduce false-alarm rates in these systems. In this study, we analyzed false-alarm rates of smoke/temperature detectors and unwanted fire-alarm signal patterns at K institution, where Korea's largest IoT-based fire-detection system operates. After analyzing the fire alarm occurrences at the institution for five years, we inferred that the IoT-based fire-detection system showed lower false-alarm rates compared to the automatic fire-detection equipment. We analyzed the detection pattern by dividing it into two parts: normal operation and unwanted fire alarms. When a specific signal pattern was filtered out, the false-alarm rate was reduced to 66.9% in the smoke detector and to 46.9% in the temperature detector.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.16-23
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• 2022

This study aims to provide a fundamental material for identifying fire and no-fire signals using the detection signal characteristics of IoT-based fire-detection systems. Unlike analog automatic fire-detection equipment, IoT-based fire-detection systems employ wireless digital communication and are connected to a server. If a detection signal exceeds a threshold value, the measured values are saved to a server within seconds. This study was conducted with the detection data saved from seven fire accidents that took place in traditional markets from 2020 to 2021, in addition to 233 fire alarm data that have been saved in the K institute from 2016 to 2020. The saved values demonstrated variable and continuous VC-Signals. Additionally, we discovered that the detection signals of two fire accidents in the K institution had a VC-Signal. In the 233 fire alarms that took place over the span of 5 years, 31% of smoke alarms and 30% of temperature alarms demonstrated a VC-Signal. Therefore, if we selectively recognize VC-Signals as fire signals, we can reduce about 70% of false alarms.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.107-114
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• 2020

With the development of the national industry, the importance of the elderly and children such as the elderly, disabled, and children is recognized. Similarly, the number of facilities for the elderly and children is increasing. Fires at facilities for the elderly and children cause heavy casualties. In response to these events, it is essential to activate fire alarms promptly and accurately and to secure evacuation routes. In this study, the laws and statistics related to facilities for elderly and children were reviewed, and problems with legal terms-such as elderly, children, others, unwanted alarm of fire alarm systems, blind spots of fire compartment standards, securing evacuation routes, and absence of standards for life safety rescue organizations-were identified. As an improvement measure, the legal definitions of similar terms-such as elderly, children, unwanted alarm checklist, and establishment of standards for fire prevention compartment-and introduction of other terms-evacuation elevators, the establishment of standards for life-safety rescue organizations, and provision of flame retardation objects for evacuees-were proposed.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.1-11
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• 2010

This paper describes a design and implementation of an analog detector and a fire alarm system with recent technology on information and communication. A hierarchical architecture design from the detector to the main system enables to accommodate medium to large size buildings located nearby or far-away. And a software design from communication protocol to application program handles large amount of events efficiently to show information on a large LCD. A PC-based alarm system provides higher speed and larger capacity in a large LCD screen compared with foreign microprocessor-based small screen systems. Thus, very large buildings with several thousands of analog detectors can be easily covered in a single system. When an alarm occurs, a staff alarm scenario specially attempted only in the system is considered to play a major role to distinguish a real fire from unwanted alarms.