Preventing property damage and business loss with top-quality fire protection in the Philippines
Highly reliable monitoring around the clock while minimizing false alarms was all possible with the installation of AVENAR fire detectors and Remote Services.
Summary
Project
Industrial manufacturing
Treasure Island Industrial Corporation, Philippines
Benefits
- Reduction of false fire alarms in dusty environments
- 24/7 monitoring of fire alarm system with Remote Services
- Future-proof system that can be modularly enhanced when needed
Product solutions
Fire Alarm System
AVENAR 8000 panel, AVENAR 4000 detectors, Remote Services
Treasure Island Industrial Corporation (TIIC) was founded in the 1950s, with its headquarters based in Cebu, satellite locations in Davao, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Iloilo, Tacloban and Cavite, plus a network of local distributors. The company serves the construction industry and domestic customers with a diverse portfolio of products. In particular, Island Premium Paints, their flagship paint brand, produces paints, varnishes, finishes, sealants, wood chemicals and coating agents. Other TIIC products include adhesives, thinners and removers.
Powerful industrial products, however, typically contain chemical ingredients which pose various risks and hazards. Many paints, varnishes and gloss lacquers are highly flammable. Paint thinners emit vapors which burn rapidly and are harmful to inhale. Products containing solvents and resins are both flammable and toxic to humans and the environment. Ingredients for manufacturing and finished products must therefore be appropriately handled, stored and transported to limit any risk of leakage, emission of fumes, damage to containers – and potential fires as a result.
If, even despite some safety measures, a fire does break out on a plant producing such materials and products, the results can be devastating. TIIC unfortunately experienced this scenario firsthand in February 2021. A fire broke out in the chemical section of the paint manufacturing facilities on the Cebu plant and spread rapidly. It took firefighters around 12 hours to extinguish the fire. By then, damage and subsequent business losses amounted to millions of pesos for the company.
Mr. Rustum Requina, Jr, Manager at Treasure Island’s EHS department, described the challenges to fire safety on their industrial sites: “The raw materials used to produce our paints and coatings products generate excessive dust. This causes many false alarms.” This is because classic fire detectors are not able to distinguish between different disturbance factors. Therefore, when dust rather than smoke particles contaminates the sensors, an alert is still triggered. Mr. Mark Rusiana, Safety Officer at the EHS Department of Treasure Island explains, “False alarms used to interrupt production so often that our employees became desensitized to them.”
Dry dust not only causes false alarms: If a fire breaks out, it accelerates the spread of flames and can even combust. A quick response to any fire is vital, but this relies on systems and safety personnel being reliably alerted first. Mr. Requina says, “Our safety officers are not in the facility 24 hours a day and they could not monitor the fire alarm system when not on the site.” However, the flames swiftly reached chemicals stored and used at the plant which continuously fueled the fire, making it incredibly difficult to extinguish.
Following the devastation this fire caused to the entire company, Mr. Requina and his colleagues needed reassurance that such a catastrophe could not be repeated. They sought a reliable early fire alarm system to at least minimize the impact of any fire, but ideally prevent it from happening at all. Mr. Requina spoke with Greg Velasco Jr., of the system integrator JRJ Solution Enterprise. After an evaluation of the site’s layout, operations and potential hazards, it was decided that an AVENAR 8000 fire panel and detectors from the AVENAR 4000 series from Bosch would provide an ideal solution. Greg contacted local Bosch partner United Electrical to obtain this system for his customers at TIIC.
The system integrators installed detectors with optical and thermal sensors to ensure fire alarms would be sounded by excessive heat, smoke or flames. The Dual Ray Technology in AVENAR detectors significantly reduces false alarms in dusty production spaces as the sensors reliably detect and differentiate between disturbance factors like dust particles, which used to trigger so many false alarms at TIIC, and signs of real alarm conditions. Mr. Ong says, “Having a reliable fire detection and alarm system from a known brand helps ease our minds that our facilities are safe.”
To be able to monitor the facility even when they are not on site, the safety officers installed Bosch Remote Services on their smart devices. This is networked with the AVENAR 8000 fire panel. Therefore, even outside usual office hours, or when working in a different area, they receive instant alerts which display clearly if they have been triggered by a real fire or if system maintenance is required. The dependable fire protection solution provides another huge benefit, besides peace of mind, efficiency and convenience: The fire panel is modular, and therefore scalable – up to 32 loops. Any expansion of the Cebu headquarters would simply require an extension with additional detectors, ensuring the same high-quality safety system across the entire Treasure Island site.
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