Automist selected to offer enhanced protection to vulnerable residents

Water mist fire suppression has been installed to enhance fire protection at a brand new high-quality affordable home for vulnerable residents in Oxford.

Ethical housing investor and developer Walls & Futures appointed approved Automist installer MCFP to install Plumis’ Smartscan Hydra to meet the wide-ranging needs of its residents now and in years to come.

The adaptable home is managed by a specialist charity that provides care and support services for people with autism, learning and physical disabilities and early-onset dementia.

As part of the project, Walls & Futures wanted to explore innovative solutions that could increase safety measures and protection for the residents moving in.

This was particularly important given that due to having reduced mobility, in the instance of a fire, many of the residents would be considered at high risk of injury or fatality.

Joe McTaggart, managing director at Walls & Futures, said: ‘Whilst most people are familiar with how a traditional sprinkler system looks and works, we wanted to integrate a modern alternative that would be discreet – without compromising safety – and would enable us to create what looked and felt like a contemporary home.

‘We wanted an intelligent system that would target the origin of a fire efficiently and effectively so when we discovered that Automist uses heat and smoke detectors in tandem with infrared sensors to achieve exactly that, as well as providing increased protection to those considered vulnerable, we knew this would be the perfect system for this particular home.’

Another priority of the project was installing a fire safety system that could be easily maintained long-term.

Liam Hughes at MCFP, said: ‘Automist can be installed with a number of different detection options and to support the long-term safety needs of this particular home, we integrated the system with an addressable fire alarm panel. This means that opposed to maintaining and managing two systems there’s just one.’

In addition to tailoring the installation to ensure it met the wide-ranging safety needs of the home’s residents, upon completion of the project MCFP delivered training to the residents’ carers to ensure they knew exactly how the system works and what would happen if the system was triggered.

Yusuf Muhammad, chief design officer at Plumis, said: ‘When we designed Automist it was with exactly this type of installation and occupant in mind. Once activated and the alarm is raised, a pump drives mains water through the unique nozzle unit, targeting the fire with a dense fog of water mist that removes heat and displaces oxygen from the fire zone, resulting in fire control, suppression, or extinguishment. The intention is to lower the temperature and the accumulation of toxic gases, helping to maintain survivable conditions.’

Plumis is an innovative UK-based engineering company whose Automist fire suppression misting technology has saved lives in homes across the UK. Trusted in both the UK and US, Plumis has completed over 10,000 Automist installations and been honoured as Innovation Category winner in the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

For more information, visit: plumis.co.uk