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Fire safety in South Africa

Fire safety is sometimes ignored, sometimes relegated to whatever is cheapest, and sometimes treated with the seriousness it deserves, given that it focuses on protecting life and assets. SMART Security Solutions asked Brett Birch, MD of Technoswitch, for some insights into the realities of fire safety in South Africa.

Birch covers essential topics, including regulatory compliance, the importance of system integration, common causes of fire system failures, and the emerging role of technology and AI in detection.

SMART Security: What does “best practice” fire safety look like in a modern South African facility?

Birch: “Best Practice” fire safety is driven by compliance. Compliance is ensuring that all requirements of the South African National Building Regulations, SANS Fire Safety Codes, and relevant fire safety bylaws are met. This can be quite daunting for the end user, as there are so many regulations, standards, and municipal bylaws to consider.

Brett Birch

End users can follow a Best Practice approach by:

• Ensuring a proper risk assessment has been undertaken on the facility by a competent person.

• Partnering with service providers that have a proven track record and who employ SAQCC Fire registered fire technicians. The current status of SAQCC Fire technicians can be verified on the SAQCC Fire website (www.saqccfire.co.za).

• Ensure fire safety systems are serviced and maintained in accordance with the requirements of the relevant standards.

• Have independent third-party inspections done on fire safety systems to ensure they have been installed and maintained as per the requirements of the relevant standards.

SMART Security: How should organisations approach the integration of fire systems with building management platforms? What about other platforms, such as security management systems?

Birch: Buildings are becoming smarter and more connected, which is driving the integration of fire systems and other disciplines into building management platforms. The level of integration will depend on the technologies used across disciplines and the end user’s actual requirements.

Although the fire safety system should be seen as the primary system for life safety, it must work seamlessly with other disciplines, such as the access control system to activate emergency exits, smoke ventilation to extract smoke, and lift controllers to ground lifts. Building management systems provide the means of integrating all these different disciplines into a single user interface for better visibility and simpler, automated control.

To simplify the integration process, the different systems should preferably communicate over the same industry-standard protocol, such as MODbus or BACnet.

SMART Security: In your experience, where do fire safety systems most commonly fail in real incidents – and why?

Birch: The most common causes of failure in fire safety systems are lack of maintenance and incorrect application or installation.

We have seen time and time again that once fire systems are outside their warranty period, minimal maintenance is performed, and even then, shortcuts are taken, resulting in systems that are not fully operational. One reason maintenance is often neglected is that service companies need to travel to the site, spend significant time on site testing, and then accurately document the work performed. The end user does not fully understand the resulting costs. Another reason is the lack of transparency for end users, which makes it difficult to verify whether the service provider is performing maintenance correctly.

Incorrect application or installation of the product will prevent the fire safety system from functioning as expected when required. The correct product must be selected for the risk and installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s requirements and relevant national standards. Service providers should be able to provide up-to-date supplier training certificates for their technicians performing installation, commissioning, and maintenance of fire safety systems, where applicable.

SMART Security: What operational disciplines are required to keep systems effective and in optimal condition over time?

Birch: Fire safety systems must be maintained in accordance with the requirements of the relevant national standards and the manufacturer’s requirements. End users can ensure this by:

• Understanding their responsibilities as documented in the relevant regulations and national standards.

• Entering into an SLA with a competent service provider with a proven track record.

• Utilising fire safety equipment which is supported by local distributors with a proven track record.

• Utilising remote monitoring and management tools, such as Nimbus, to drive compliance testing of fire safety systems, thereby ensuring systems are fully operational at all times.

SMART Security: How mature is the use of AI and analytics in fire detection today, realistically?

Birch: We are seeing AI incorporated into sensor technology to improve early fire detection and minimise false alarms. However, the fire safety market is conservative by nature and slow to adopt new technology. The main reason for slow adoption is that most fire safety products must be certified against performance standards, and it takes time to incorporate new technology into the relevant product standards and for certification bodies to develop testing procedures for it.

SMART Security: What does your company do in the fire safety market, and what services/solutions do you offer?

Birch: Technoswitch designs and manufactures 50+ products, including conventional and extinguishing control panels, power supplies, customised detection and control equipment, interfaces, and peripherals. Our products are trusted across industries for their proven reliability, especially in mining and industrial environments.

We complement our OEM range with certified, imported intelligent control panels, fire detection, suppression, and signalling equipment, including point, heat, flame, ASD, LHD, and beam detectors, as well as specialised fire suppression solutions. Our suppliers are global leaders in their fields and include Advanced, Apollo, Ciqurix, Drax, Evikon, FGD, JAD, Hyfire, Protectowire, Securiton, Teletek, and FireBeam.

Our head office, manufacturing and main distribution centres are in Johannesburg, with branches in Cape Town, Durban, and Gqeberha. Our trusted network of distributors provides support across sub-Saharan Africa.

The Technoswitch team is distinguished by functional and technical expertise with hands-on experience, ensuring our clients receive the best professional service. Our sales, pre-sales, and technical teams include SAQCC-certified designers and commissioners who can perform site assessments and system designs.

We are CPD-accredited, and our training department and online training platform deliver accessible training, including product- and industry-specific, SANS standards, and SAQCC Fire-accredited training.

Our extensive product portfolio allows us to deliver superior solutions for residential, commercial, industrial, mining, and marine markets. We pride ourselves on delivering sustainable fire detection and suppression solutions and providing reliable products and professional services to our partners.

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