A signal only the
fire service can send.
When a high rise has to move from stay put to full evacuation, the fire service needs its own way to tell residents, distinct from the fire alarm and under nobody else’s control. At Helix Tower in Wembley, a 20 storey student residence of 600 rooms, Gemini AMPM designed and installed exactly that: an evacuation alert system operated solely by the Fire and Rescue Service, delivered inside a full building refit.
Six hundred rooms,
one clear instruction.
An evacuation alert system is the arrangement BS 8629 describes for tall residential buildings: a dedicated system, zoned by floor, that lets the fire service order an evacuation area by area, sounding a tone residents can tell apart from the everyday fire alarm. The control point sits in a secure enclosure that only the Fire and Rescue Service can open, because the decision it triggers belongs to them alone.
At Helix Tower that meant an Advance Evac Go control panel housed in a Gerda premises information box at the entrance, Hyfire wireless sounders through 20 storeys of student accommodation, and a distinct alert tone commissioned so there is no ambiguity between “a detector has operated somewhere” and “leave now”.
The scope,
in full.
System design
A floor zoned evacuation alert system for a 20 storey residential tower, designed around the model BS 8629 describes for fire service controlled evacuation.
Control & enclosure
Advance Evac Go control equipment housed in a Gerda premises information box, accessible only to the Fire and Rescue Service.
Wireless coverage
Hyfire wireless devices through 600 rooms and the common parts, with a distinct evacuation tone separate from the fire alarm.
Ongoing maintenance
Retained to maintain and update the system after handover, keeping it ready rather than merely installed.
Installed inside
a moving refit.
The system went in while the tower was being comprehensively refitted around it, which meant sequencing device installation floor by floor against other trades, protecting completed work, and commissioning zone by zone as areas handed over through 2022 and 2023. Wireless devices earned their keep here: no new containment fighting for riser space in a programme already full of it.
Gemini AMPM remains retained to maintain and update the system, which is how an evacuation alert system has to live: tested, maintained and ready for the one day it is needed. For the wider discipline, see our evacuation alert systems service.
Delivered
to standard.
- BS 8629 model: dedicated evacuation alert system with fire service only control and a distinct alert signal.
- Partner equipment: Advance Evac Go control and Hyfire wireless devices, with Gerda secure enclosure.
- Live programme delivery: installed and commissioned inside a full residential refit across 2022 and 2023.
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similar?
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