WINNERS ANNOUNCED AT FIRE EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Tyco Safety Products and D-Tec were announced as winners of the two Fire Industry Association (FIA) sponsored categories at the 2009 Fire Excellence Awards at Birmingham's Hilton Metropole Hotel on 12 May.

Some 450 guests attended the Awards Dinner which celebrates the very best in the fire safety community, with 11 awards which range from product and project based categories through to those which highlight the achievements of personnel involved in fighting fires.

Tyco won the FIA Product Innovation Award for FlameVision, a flame detection system which features a 256 element infrared sensor array to provide location information of single and multiple fire events. 

FlameVision uses CCTV to provide visual verification of the fire, allowing the most appropriate response to the incident to be employed quickly and effectively.  The detector can analyse the images formed on different parts of the array and track each source to assess the likelihood of it being an actual fire before triggering an alarm.

This inherent feature of the infrared array, together with the ability to mask array cells, results in a detector with an excellent false alarm rejection capability.
Winners of the FIA Export Innovation Award were D-Tec. 

Their winning product was their Video Smoke Detection (VSD) system for Tunnel Fire Safety.  The system analyses images to provide an early warning of fire and is being employed in a growing number of the most prestigious tunnel applications throughout the world. 

In the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, the VSD system was retrofitted to 80 CCTV cameras to warn of incidents in a tunnel which carries almost 90,000 vehicles a day. 

Other notable applications include the main tunnel at the iconic Palm Jumeirah man-made island in Dubai where D-Tec's VSD is providing a fast-track response in the 1.4km long tunnel which required 185,000 cubic metres of concrete and 30,000 tons of reinforcing steel in its construction.

Graham Ellicott, CEO of the Fire Industry Association and one of the eleven strong judging panel, presented the two FIA awards, together with host, TV sports presenter Steve Ryder.

Graham commented - “I'd like to congratulate Tyco and C-Tec on their achievement, along with all the other finalists and award winners.  With the work we continue to do with the fire service and our members in producing systems that reduce false alarms, Tyco's FlameVision and its ability to provide visual verification is a very welcome contribution to that process.  Taking the expertise we have in the UK out into the international arena is also crucial in furthering fire safety and with the loss of life we have seen from serious tunnel fires, D-Tec's system has an important role to play. Events such as these awards show that innovation is alive and well in the fire protection industry and are an excellent way of ensuring that we all continue to strive in developing new ways of tackling the threat posed by fire.”

Further Details: Beverley Bane, FIA, Thames House, 29 Thames Street, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, KT1 1PH Tel: 020 8549 8839 Fax: 020 8547 1564
E-mail: info@fia.uk.com
Website: www.fia.uk.com