Alarm System Increases Fire Safety at N.J. College
MONTCLAIR, N.J. — Montclair State University completed the installation of a fire alarm system in the campus’s newest building, University Hall, using Notifier’s ONYX First-Vision fire detection technology.
The seven-story building houses 40 percent of the university’s total classroom space. As the second largest university in New Jersey, the school serves more than 15,000 students, 3,500 of which live on campus.
The building is considered one of the most important at the campus because it contains the entire information technology department, including all of the school’s servers, in addition to a 500-person banquet hall and two cooking labs.
University officials wanted to implement a fire alarm system that would detect a fire emergency and direct emergency responders to the exact location of the incident while simultaneously keeping school officials and students safe and informed.
FirstVision was a reasonable choice for the school, not only for its efficiency, but because the majority of the school is equipped with other Notifier products, making installation simple and compatible with existing systems, according to officials.
The ONYX FirstVision from Notifier, a manufacturer of commercial fire alarm systems technology and part of Honeywell’s Life Safety Group, is a graphical touchscreen interface for firefighters and emergency personnel.
The system displays information on the origin and spread of a fire, which will help reduce the amount of time it takes to locate the fire and give firefighters a chance to extinguish it faster, reducing property loss and casualties.
The system will also help emergency personnel locate resources, such as standpipe connections, emergency shut-off valves, stairwells and any structural or chemical hazards that exist.
The installation was completed in eight days, with Notifier distributor Automatic Suppression & Alarm Systems, of Malwah, N.J., providing installation services and custom graphic work.
In addition to the new system at University Hall, the school also added several ONYXWorks PC workstations for monitoring fire and security systems and replaced three existing panels with Notifier products.