M & S Fire Protection LLC

A Class B fire is one that's caused by burning petroleum products. As such, great care must be exercised in putting such a blaze out because the wrong type of extinguisher (e.g. water and foam) can spread the burning fuel over a wider area.

What is a Class A fire? This is the most common type of fire and is caused by the burning of ordinary materials such as paper, wood, cloth and plastics. These fires are typically fought with water and foam extinguishers that work by eliminating heat and smothering the fire.

If you live in a place where temperatures don't dip below freezing, then a good fire protection system you can use would be a wet pipe sprinkler. As its name implies, this setup has pipes that are always charged with water, thus allowing for instant release in case a fire breaks out.

If you want a fire protection system that's fit for a large structure, your best bet would be an intelligent networked system. Essentially, such a set up allows multiple control boxes and devices to communicate with each other, thus ensuring that the whole system doesn't fail should some components get damaged or destroyed.

There are many fire alarm systems available but they generally fall into four distinct groups: conventional, addressable, intelligent and wireless. Knowing what works best for you will help you narrow your choices before you settle on something specific.

A conventional fire alarm is one that divides a structure into zones in order to identify where a particular fire is burning. As such, the control box for this system has a lot of input ports so that multiple detectors can installed in many areas.

Did you know that the glass bulbs that activate sprinkler heads have different ratings? Orange bulbs for instance, will operate a sprinkler head at 135 F, while blue ones will activate a sprinkler when temperatures reach 286 F.

In order for the water discharged by a sprinkler head to be more effective, it's going to have to cover a large area. As such, diffusers are built into the sprinkler heads so that the water flowing out of them will disperse rather than just fall straight down.

If the weather in your area varies, one fire protection system you can have installed is a hybrid sprinkler. Also known as a wet and dry sprinkler, the pipes in this system are charged with water for as long as the temperature is above freezing, but will switch to dry mode when colder weather arrives.

Did you know that the water supply for sprinklers come from different sources? In low to medium risk structures, the sprinklers can be fed from the town's mains. In heavy risk structures however, the water comes from huge reservoirs that are connected to powerful pumps.

Among the most useful fire protection devices you can install in your home are smoke detectors. These instruments can potentially save your life and property as they will buy you the time you need to either fight the blaze or evacuate.

While you may think that all fire extinguishers are the same, the truth is, they aren't. Class A fires (ordinary combustibles) for instance, can be extinguished by a water and foam extinguisher but a Class K fire (cooking oil and grease) will require a wet chemical extinguisher.

What is a Class C fire? This type of fire is known as an energized fire and is caused by electrical equipment that's still plugged in. To combat such a blaze, all electrical power must be cut and an appropriate fire extinguishing chemical must be used.

If you need to retrofit an older building with a fire alarm system, one thing to consider would be a wireless alarm. Given its nature, this intelligent system is relatively quick to install, thus minimizing the disturbance caused by workers.