S 1.54 Early detection of fires / fire extinguishing technology

Initiation responsibility: Management

Implementation responsibility: Architect

When a fire develops in IT systems, turning off the power supply may in itself be sufficient to delay or end the fire.

To monitor IT systems, object-specific monitoring can be achieved using multi-detectors. To supplement the conventional fire alarm technology (geometric room surveillance) object monitoring (i.e. monitoring within individual IT components) constitutes an additional alert level. These multi-detectors can be used both for object-specific extinguishing and also to turn off the power supply to the unit affected.

If additional extinguishing is viewed as necessary, cost and personal protection considerations suggest that only individual objects (e.g. 19 inch cabinets) should be individually protected with quenching gases. Property protection systems should be oriented to VdS standard 2304 with regard to planning, fire alarms, fire extinguishing and to the installation instructions of the manufacturer and the requirements relating to operation and maintenance of the equipment.

Surveillance of rooms in the IT area can be achieved by installing optical smoke detectors. The raised floor should also be monitored through similar smoke alarm systems.

If there are any special requirements regarding the availability of a computer centre or server room or if they contain particularly valuable IT components or ones which are difficult to replace, the use of an automatic inert gas fire extinguishing system (carbon dioxide, Inergen, argon, nitrogen, FM 200 etc.) should be considered.

The use of oxygen-repressing quenching gases not only smothers flames but can cause asphyxiation in humans. Thus there is an acute danger to life if the concentration of carbon dioxide exceeds eight percent by volume. For this reason in the Federal Republic of Germany the trade union guidelines (ZH 1/206 Safety rules for carbon dioxide fire extinguishing systems, April 1988) recommend the use of delay systems for safety "where the quantity used relative to the total volume of the room in which the protected object is accommodated would cause a quenching gas concentration in excess of 5% by volume."

Planning of a quenching gas system should only be performed by an expert in the area.

Additional controls:

• What steps are taken to ensure that fires are detected as early as possible?