Mechanical Fire Protection Installations Vancouver
What do you need to protect your building against fire?
- An automatic sprinkler system combined with a fire alarm system.
- Fire pumps to ensure adequate water pressure to your standpipes and sprinklers.
- Fire hoses ready for firefighters to battle the blaze.
- Backflow preventers to ensure no toxic chemicals enter your municipality’s water distribution network.
To protect your building and its occupants, these mechanical components of your fire protection system must be properly installed. They must work as designed when needed. Lives and property depend on it.
That’s where we come in. Our fire protection personnel are rigorously trained in house and have years of mechanical experience. Only licensed sprinkler fitters install sprinkler systems and backflow preventers. We ensure your installations comply with regulatory requirements and industry standards, such as the B.C. Building Code, National and B.C. Fire Code, Vancouver bylaws and NFPA 13.
In fact, we bring the same expertise and exceptional service standards to a complete range of fire protection services, from installation to monitoring and inspections to repair.
If you use Vancouver Fire for installation, monitoring and inspections, co-ordination is simpler. There is less chance for miscommunication and error. And it becomes our sole responsibility to take care of your sprinkler system and repair it.
We welcome the opportunity to take care of all your fire protection needs. We’ll do it with skill and passion you won’t find anywhere else.
More information about fire monitoring.
More information about fire protection system inspections.
Automatic Sprinkler Systems
What is it? A sprinkler system is an integrated piping system connecting a water supply to a set of sprinkler heads. In the event of a fire, a heat sensitive element in the sprinkler head activates, releasing the water or fire suppressant and directing it over the fire. Since each sprinkler head uses a heat sensitive element, only the sprinkler heads over the fire activate.
When is it required? If you own a commercial, industrial or mid-rise wood frame residential building, the B.C. Building Code requires you to install an automatic fire sprinkler system in accordance with NFPA 13 standards. Increasingly, B.C. municipalities are requiring sprinkler systems in all new buildings, including single family residential.
What is required? Any new fire sprinkler system must comply with the B.C. Building and Fire Codes, NFPA 13 and municipal bylaws. A qualified engineer performs complicated hydraulic calculations to ensure the sprinklers provide enough water or fire suppressant to extinguish a fire. The results are then submitted to the local municipality for approval.
Altering an existing system, such as moving or adding sprinkler heads, may or may not require re-engineering.
At Vancouver Fire, we use sprinkler fitters—licensed by the provincial government—on all our sprinkler installation projects. These certified professionals, operating under our strict quality control program, install your system according to the approved design.
To prepare documents for municipal approval, to learn whether your existing system requires re-engineering or to install an approved design, contact us today.
More information about inspections and monitoring for automatic sprinkler systems.
Fire Pumps
Fire pumps ensure an adequate water supply to an entire fire sprinkler system, even on the top floors of a highrise. If your building is tall enough for your sprinkler or standpipe system to encounter inadequate water volume or pressure, you require a fire pump.
Even one or two-family dwellings may require fire pumps if water pressure is low (NFPA 13D). In addition, you may need to install a fire pump if a building’s fire risk has increased, requiring higher delivered density from the sprinkler heads.
NFPA 20, as cited in the B.C. Building Code, provides comprehensive standards for selecting and installing all types of fire pumps. These standards include ensuring:
- An uninterrupted power supply to the pump. Supply conductors, generators and power sources must be protected from fire.
- Approved components to handle the type of water supply available, including a pump driver, controller, gear drive, water relief valve and storage or pump suction tank.
- Alarms signal
- Fire pump power failure or failure to start (for a diesel engine)
- Pump controller not in automatic mode
- Diesel engine/battery trouble
- Pump house temperature
- Suction tank low water levels
The complex regulatory requirements for selecting and installing fire pumps can be overwhelming. Allow Vancouver Fire’s experts to navigate the codes, industry standards and bylaws for you. We’re here to make your job easier.
Contact us today to learn more about selecting and installing a fire pump.
More information about inspection and testing for fire pumps.
Fire Hoses
Standpipe systems and fire hoses provide important backup fire protection for your sprinkler system or when there is no sprinkler system in the building. In a fire, occupants and, occasionally, firefighters, use the fire hoses to protect a building.
As with other components of your fire protection system, the installation of fire hoses is governed by national, provincial and municipal codes and bylaws. NFPA 14, for example, sets out the location and requirements for hose stations and connections, fire department connections, valves, signs, cabinets and pressure-regulating devices. These detailed standards specify the length and diameter of hoses as well as the hydraulic calculations required for the standpipes.
To ensure your standpipes and fire hoses work as designed when needed, allow our fire protection installation experts to install them. For your peace of mind, choose Vancouver Fire.
Contact us today to learn more about selecting and installing your standpipes and fire hoses.
More information about inspection and testing for standpipe and fire hose systems.
Backflow Preventers
Backflow prevention assemblies play an important role in your fire protection system. While preventing contaminated or toxic water from flowing backwards into a municipality’s water distribution network, they may also prevent your sprinkler or standpipe system from achieving full water flow demand.
NFPA 13 and 25 govern the installation and testing requirements for backflow preventers. Because backflow prevention assemblies can have a significant impact on the water supply to automatic sprinkler systems, they are subject to significant hydraulic analysis and forward flow testing.
At Vancouver Fire, we use only provincially licensed sprinkler fitters to install backflow prevention assemblies. Our certified technicians and installers understand the regulatory requirements for installing these critical components of your fire protection system.
Contact us today to learn more about selecting and installing your backflow preventer.
More information about inspection and testing for backflow preventers.
Our Fire Protection Service Guarantee
Our goal is to be B.C.’s most trusted safety and security provider, protecting what matters most to our customers and delivering unmatched service with passion each and every day.
With our own central monitoring station, located in Metro Vancouver, and a large team of certified fire protection technicians as well as troubleshooters, we’re here to serve you 24/7.
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