The new generation of fire systems known as “Addressable” offer the opportunity to connect to a computer to monitor the alerts that they process. CarePoint, through its SmartCare® software, can take the output from these panels, and send it to the pagers used with the CarePoint system.
The method used is an RS-232 Serial Interface between the panel and the Central Monitoring Station computer. The fire panel can have a serial printer interface that is used to send a message to a printer every time it senses an event. These events can include such messages as system tests, trouble reports as well as actual alarms. What goes out to the printer is usually the same information that will appear on the remote enunciator panel by the front door.
The fire panel interface takes the output out of the printer port and imports it into SmartCare. SmartCare then evaluates the message looking for certain key words (specified by the fire company) such as “smoke” or “alarm.”. If it sees one of these words, it puts the message out verbatim to the CommunityCare pagers and logs it to the history file. The message will also include the location of the alert.
If the in-room smoke detectors are part of the building fire system, the fire panel interface is all that is needed to be able to let the staff know the location of an alarm without having to go to the fire panel directly. This means faster reaction, reduced damages and less risk of resident injury. If the in-room smoke detectors are not part of the building fire system, then one of the other monitoring methods available in the CommunityCare product line should be considered.
When selecting the fire panel interface, it is important to specify to the company installing the fire panel that they must interface with the emergency call system. This will ensure that they put in the serial port and support Lifeline efforts to connect the two. Lifeline will provide the fire company with a form to fill out to specify the details of the interface they are going to use. Then, SmartCare can be tailored to work with the identified interface.
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