Fire Protection System Design
FIREPRO professional engineers provide complete fire protection engineering services for the building community, beginning with conceptual engineering, to detailed engineering and construction documents, to construction observation and final acceptance test monitoring.

Our fire engineering design services include the design of:

• Fire alarm systems
• Automatic sprinkler systems
• Egress Systems

All of our design efforts exhibit common features:

Specifications
To assure competitive contractor selection, we prepare performance specifications rather than the traditional design specifications. We assist you with assessing the key system and component performance criteria necessary for meeting the objectives of your designs and detail those requirements into a customized specification. In addition to the product specifications, we also detail contractor qualifications, testing requirements, and acceptance criteria. These specifications follow the format standards established by the Construction Specifications Institute.

Drawings
All system design drawings are developed using computer aided design software and follow our in-house standards for drawings. The fire protection component symbols that we use are consistent with national standards and remain the same throughout.

Software
We utilize industry accepted design software to enhance some of our design services. Before we implement software into our design procedures we review and test it. We have also participated as a Beta Site for testing new or enhanced software packages.

Fire Alarm Systems
Utilizing over sixty years of combined experience, our engineers will design a fire alarm system to meet your needs and integrate it into your building.

• Do you have a historic property where it is imperative that the devices are unobtrusive, but you wish to know when a cigarette-size fire starts?
• What about a commercial building where economy is paramount?
• Perhaps you just wish to know if your building fire alarm system still meets the code?

Let us help! We will design the system to meet your goals and satisfy insurance and local jurisdiction requirements.

We are a leader in fire alarm system designs. Our professionals are active in the codes and standards development process and stay abreast of the latest code changes and technology. We also have installation knowledge and marketing experience; we understand the industry's process.

We design fire alarm systems by understanding a building's occupancies, and the protection philosophy of management. Since every system must meet the minimum requirements of the various codes and standards, we ensure that the design is complete before a Professional Engineer stamp is applied.

A fire alarm system's level of sophistication can range from manual pull stations that only alert nearby occupants to a networked campus complex consisting of multiple control panels with a variety of automatic detection inputs. Alarm system inputs may include the monitoring of sprinkler systems, special suppression systems, personal safety systems, and various signal outputs and control functions, such as elevator recall and smoke management systems. Alerting the occupants can be as simple as horns and strobes operating throughout the building, to the notification of selected areas or floors by voice evacuation systems.

Automatic Sprinkler Systems
Once a fire starts, it will eventually go out. However, what happens to your building between the start and the finish of a fire can be a disaster! A well-designed automatic sprinkler system can mitigate the consequences of a fire in your building, perhaps saving your product, your building, and even your business.

History is full of horror stories of businesses that never recovered from the effects of a fire. Don't join that group! We can help you design water suppression systems, including standpipes and all types of sprinkler systems: wet pipe; dry pipe; and pre-action. We design systems for varied occupancies: apartment buildings; computer rooms; high-rise office buildings; hospitals; hotels; retail stores; and light and heavy industrial applications.

An automatic sprinkler system provides one of the most reliable methods available for controlling fires, thereby minimizing property damage and business interruption. Properly installed and maintained automatic suppression systems are also very effective for life safety, as they warn of a fire and apply water to control or extinguish the fire.

FIREPRO's design process starts by obtaining an understanding of the building and its various occupancies. We implement all applicable codes and standards, and keep you as involved in the design process as you want to be. The ultimate product is a well-designed sprinkler system.

Egress System Design
The ability of occupants to safely leave a facility during a fire incident is a major concern. Occupant evacuation strategy must consider not only the building design and fire protection features, but also the mobility of its occupants, their behavioral characteristics, and the levels of evacuation training that are provided.

Egress systems consist of three primary components: the exit access, the exit and the exit discharge. Exit access is the route occupants must follow to reach the exit. The exit is a protected path, which allows the occupants to leave the building without risk from the fire. The exit discharge is a planned path to direct the occupants safely away from the incident.

The primary base for all of our egress system design considerations is the occupant loading of the facility. How many people will there be and where will they be located? Once these levels are determined, the required capacity of free width of the egress routes is determined. The life safety analysis considers the specific building design, floor layout, protection of the exit access, travel distance, level of fire protection, and occupant mobility and behavior characteristics. We also look at exit signage, emergency lighting, and smoke management.

The results of this analysis are presented as design drawings of the egress system or a report for implementation into a building design by the client.