Systems that put the fire out, not just detect it

The difference becomes decisive in rooms where response time is expensive: server rooms, UPS/battery rooms, archives, transformers, paint booths and kitchen hoods. In these rooms, the minutes between the alarm sounding and a team being on site directly determine how much damage occurs.

Whether it is mandatory depends on the building type, its height and how the room is used — we work out room by room, during the site survey, where it applies to your building. Which regulation we read it against is set out below, under the documents question.

The room's fire class and the equipment inside it decide:

• Clean agent (chemical agents such as HFC-227ea, FK-5-1-12, or inert gases such as IG-541) — server room, UPS, electrical room, archive. Leaves no residue on discharge; avoids the secondary damage that water and dry chemical powder cause to electronic equipment.
• Foam — fuel, paint and chemical stores; blankets the flammable liquid surface and cuts off vaporisation.
• Water / sprinkler — general volumes. Design follows the room's hazard class (light / ordinary / high).
• Wet chemical — kitchen hoods; water and gas do not work on a cooking-oil fire.

This is not a catalogue decision: it is normal for the same building to have three different systems in three different rooms. We make the choice room by room, during the site survey.

In order:

• Volume to be protected (m³) — the biggest factor; agent quantity is calculated directly from volume.
• Design concentration — comes from a standard table based on the agent and the room's hazard class; it is not negotiable.
• Agent type — inert gas or halocarbon; storage pressure and cylinder count follow from this.
• Number of rooms (zones) and whether the cylinder bank is shared between them.
• Detection and release panel, and integration with the existing fire alarm/BMS.
• Pipe and nozzle routing — the further the cylinder room is from the protected space, the longer the pipe run.
• Room integrity — pressure relief damper and room integrity (door-fan) testing. This is the item most often forgotten in quotes; if the gas cannot be held in the room, the system only works on paper.

In Turkey, the framework for fire safety is the Binaların Yangından Korunması Hakkında Yönetmelik (Council of Ministers Decision 2007/12937, Official Gazette 19.12.2007 / 26735). The regulation has been amended many times; we always assess the project against the text in force on the application date.

In practice, the documents required are: the approved fire project, post-installation acceptance and conformity certificates, the fire brigade conformity report requested by the municipality during licensing, and periodic inspection records after commissioning.

The list your insurer requires for the policy varies by company. At the quote stage we ask you for that list and write the scope against it — so no document turns out to be missing once the work is finished.

If there is a maintenance agreement, it is our job; if not, it belongs to whoever installed the system or the service you authorise. For fixed gas systems the schedule has three layers: visual inspection, cylinder weight/pressure verification, and panel-plus-detection function testing. Intervals are set by system type and manufacturer instructions; we write them date by date into the agreement.

Post-discharge is a separate matter: until cylinder refilling, checking of the trigger line and acceptance testing are complete, the room is considered unprotected. We document the difference between "the system exists" and "the system is in working order" with a written report.

Periodic inspection of portable extinguishers is a separate topic and is carried out per TS ISO 11602-2.