Lyca Medical

Nobel Fire Systems Fit for Healthcare Sector

In the healthcare sector, the smallest of fires can have far reaching and costly consequences. Effective and reliable property fire protection is therefore not only desirable but essential for all businesses operating within the healthcare environment. Even if vital medical equipment escapes fire damage, anything that has been exposed to the slightest risk of smoke contamination may have to be destroyed or at best subjected to highly expensive cleansing procedures. And of course, many patients have special needs that can make them especially vulnerable in a fire emergency, a factor which potentially increases the risk of fire-casualties.

When ARJ Construction needed specialist advice on how best to achieve fire protection for the facility they were constructing on behalf of Lyca Medical in Orpington, they turned to Nobel Fire Systems.

The special challenges associated with achieving effective fire suppression in critical areas such as MRI rooms, Scanner rooms and X-ray monitor rooms were a major concern and formed an integral part of Nobel’s brief. ARJ also stressed the importance of any system not detracting from the overall ambiance of the facility which has been designed to provide an uplifting experience for both patients and staff.

The initial part of the project consisted of designing and installing a fire suppression system that would provide complete protection for the facility’s stand alone server room. After carrying out a complete site survey the Nobel technical team advised that a Stat-X condensed aerosol system be installed on the grounds of cost effectiveness, speed of installation and also for the fact that in this type of working building, the installation process is far less intrusive.

The second stage of the project was far more challenging because of the nature of the areas being protected. They consisted of an MRI room; RT scanner room and X-Ray monitor room. Given the conditions and taking into account that the rooms have constant patient/staff usage, IG55 was chosen over other potential systems. It was considered to present the best option for this particular risk given all of the safety, environmental and physical on-site restraints.

Dedicated pipework was required for each risk area together with directional or selector valves for the four IG55 cylinders in use. Determining where the cylinders should be positioned in relation to the protected areas and the optimum route for the piping added to the challenge for Nobel’s engineers as they developed a selector valve resolution.

The MRI room has an RF cage or shield around it to prevent interference from external RF signals All pipework or cables going in and out of the MRI room pass through a Penetration Panel which contains waveguides and filters required to provide communication between the inside and outside of the scanner room. Nobel’s installation engineers worked closely with the client to ensure compliance in this highly critical area of the process.

Lyca Medical now has a reliable and practical property fire suppression system in place to protect its latest healthcare facility. Build time for the system was just 10 weeks and Nobel’s team of experts delivered on time, in full and to the agreed budget.